


Love Deficiency

by clearlonelysky



Category: Powerpuff Girls
Genre: Action & Romance, Ample Action, Blossom and Buttercup sibling fight, Blossom is concerned, Boomer is confused as always, Brick is shunned, Brick runs away from home, Bubbles thinks boys are adorable, Butch cares but not cares, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Cute early romance, Don't know how to do tags, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Mentions of Buttercup's past romance, Mojo and HIM joint custody, Please just read lol, Plot behind RRB rebirth, Satisfying fluff, Slow Build, Something is fishy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 71,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearlonelysky/pseuds/clearlonelysky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"By the way, Brick." Blossom paused before her departure. Brick gave her a 'what now' look. "You're wrong. People didn't always like me." She said, turning her head slightly and looking meaningfully at the red boy with no longer anger-ridden eyes. "I was just as upset as you were."</p><p>RRBs are attacked by an angry mob of citizens. Brick is affected by it, meeting Blossom's comfort. But something sinister is lurking in the background. Slow build up of childhood fluff. Reds/Greens/Blues</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Brick's Outburst

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is clearlonelysky.
> 
> I'm originally a FF writer who recently joined and decided to try this site out as well, after discovering an author I like on this page. I don't know how many Powerpuff fanatics there are out there, but I hope you enjoy this one and only Powerpuff fanfic that I have been working on for years, but unfortunately, have yet completed.  
> Since FF doesn't allow direct import, it might take a while to upload all chapters here. So, feel free to check FF.net for this story if you wish. (There are currently 9 chapters available.)  
> (Edit: 9 chapters when this was written. It's way past that now.)
> 
> In this story, the characters are of original age. And I try to stick to their canon characteristics. As a PPG fan, I've always wanted to come up with a logical story line where the PPGs and RRBs come together and develop subtle feelings. So here's what I have come up with so far.  
> For every chapter, I try to depict all the character's thought process and individual development as specifically as possible. Let me know if there can be some improvements.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> -CLS-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stopping Butch from a fight wasn't what Brick usually would have done. But he knew he wasn't angry at the citizens in Townsville anymore. He was angry at someone else, and he never wanted to see their snooty little faces again. And while they were on their way back home, he couldn't keep this one particular phrase out of his head.
> 
> "…they're only using you to defeat the puffs…"
> 
> "…using you to defeat the puffs…"
> 
> "…to defeat the puffs…"
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> ..
> 
> "Puffs…"

"Help! Help!"

A desperate cry for help was heard in the Townsville Park. Three figures with huge eyes were holding up a boy twice the size of them upside down, shaking him mercilessly so money would slip out from his pockets. Passersby who heard the cry would search for the source of the sound, but when they saw the faces of the three bullying kids, they turned their heads away from the sight with a heavy heart, for the trios were none other than— _the Rowdyruff Boys._

"Oomph!"

When the continuous drops of dollars came to a stop, the Rowdyruffs loosened their grip, causing the boy to fall on the grass head first. The victim of their bullying quickly stood up and started to run, afraid they would do him more harm. But luckily, all three only cared about the money, and not one paid interest in pursuing him. The one with the baseball cap started gathering up all the cash littered on the ground, quickly followed by another with jet-black hair. The last remaining blond ruff was all set to join them, when something stopped him short. He pondered in his spot for a few seconds.

"Uh, Brick?"

"What now, Boomer?" The redhead replied somewhat annoyed. His eyes never left the money in his hands which he just started to count.

"Why are we taking someone's money when we can just steal stuff?"

"Because it's much more fun, you idiot!" Butch the green ruff shouted while also not stopping from counting.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Boomer yelled back.

"Well, you are now! So just shut up and… Aww man! Nice going, Boomer! I have to start all over again!"

"Like that's my fault." Boomer mumbled crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"It's totally your fault!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Brick looked up from his money, only to find his siblings rolling all over the ground punching each other. He rolled his eyes, and resumed back to what he was doing. He wasn't exactly in the mood to yell at them. They wouldn't listen to him during their fist fights anyway.

"Ouch!"

Just then, the redheaded ruff was interrupted by a sharp pain on his head. An object bounced off his head and landed right beside him... It was a stone. Brick turned red with anger and glared at the direction it came from—and he was surprised, for a moment, not to see their usual rivals, but about twenty normal kids each holding as much stones they could carry in their tiny hands.

The children were throwing daggers through their eyes, never seeming to blink. Then in a moment's notice, the small group rapidly encircled the ruffs, which finally stopped Boomer and Butch from their fight. The two got off from each other and stood up, blinking in confusion. Brick was puzzled as well, but soon put on his usual frown and placed his hands on his sides.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" He demanded.

By that, a boy named Mitch Mitchelson stepped out from the small crowd, took a deep breath, and pointed his finger directly at them.

"You're gonna pay for what you've done Rowder-up boys!"

"It's Rowdyruff!" Boomer corrected, but Mitch didn't seem to care.

"All this time we had to be bullied for no reason! And I say it's not fair!"

"Yeah!" The others shouted in agreement.

"So it will be better for you to surrender, before we really show you what we've got!"

"Yeah!" Again, the children shouted in unison. A bit louder this time.

...

Complete silence befell the park. Everybody had stopped their motion to watch what was going on. Even the drivers on the nearby street had parked their cars to look out the window.

The Rowdyruffs for that matter, stood still without a word. Their mouths started to quiver, but still nothing. Seeing that, Mitch took it as them trembling with fear. However, he was flat out proven wrong when they suddenly started to burst out laughing.

"Pffft...HAHAHHA! They want us to surrender! PFFFFHHHHAHAHAHA!"

"Show us what they got! WAHAHAHAHHA! Oh, man, it's… it's killing me! HAHAHHAHAHA!"

The three collapsed on the ground and howled in their fits of laughter.

Mitch and his small group of friends narrowed their eyes and clenched their teeth, trying to hold back the rage boiling inside them. Obviously the ruffs weren't taking their words seriously.

For a few seconds the RRBs wallowed in amusement, until slowly, their laughter died down. Though when it did, the boys were practically gasping for breath.

Brick managed to calm himself down first, and so the redheaded leader stood up and wiped a tear out from his eye, stepping closer to Mitch. He raised an eyebrow at him and smirked.

"Ain't fair for you to be bullied, eh?"

Mitch slowly crossed his head. Brick leaned closer, and whispered softly in his ear.

"...Whatya gonna do about it?"

With that, in a brief second, Brick punched Mitch in the gut, sending him flying into a bush. His friends were shocked by the happening, and ran to the bush to see if he was okay. The ruffs cackled loudly, soon returned by the kids with death glares. They simply couldn't take it anymore, and neither could Mitch. The brown freckled face boy balled his fists and shrieked to the top of his lungs.

_"Crush 'em!"_

On cue, the kids let out a battle cry and hurled their stones at the RRBs. The boys ceased their laughs only to see countless stones coming right at them. Their eyes widened to the size of saucers. It was only natural the three never expected the kids to actually attack, which was why they couldn't find the time to dodge all the stones.

The rocks broke through and thrashed on to their near invincible bodies, yet still leaving small cuts and bruises. They were never enough to hurt them badly, and because of that they could have easily overpowered the assaults. But unlucky for them, they lost their chance when more citizens approached the scene, triggered by the bravery of the children standing up to the boys.

In a blink of a second, the small crowd turned into a huge mob surrounding the ruffs entirely. More rocks were pouring in, hitting the boys harshly on every part of their bodies. And though it was hard to even see through the massive stones now, the sight of the three wrongdoers powerless under their will served as motivation, encouraging the civilians to attack more severely.

Brick in the meantime did his best to defend himself from the onslaught. He curled up his body and protected the back of his head with his arms in fetal position, while his brothers did about the same. Surely, the pain from the thrown stones was tolerable, but Brick was brought to absolute rage when he heard the words coming from the mob.

"Don't even think about laying your filthy paws on our children!"

"Yeah, nobody wants you around, you son of a monkey!"

"Why don't you just do us a favor, and get lost!"

"I bet even your so-called parents don't care about you. They're only using you to defeat the puffs, which you never will!"

The words whirled around in Brick's head and tangled up with other newly made nasty comments. He squeezed his eyes shut, biting down on his lip, until he finally reached his breaking point. He got out of his defense and stood up screaming in bloody rage, blasting people away randomly.

The next moment, screams and cries pervaded the park as the citizens were knocked out or injured right on the site. Those who were lucky enough to escape ran away for shelter, leaving only three boys standing in front of a scene of mostly unconscious people strewn on the ground.

Left in the burning remains, Butch and Boomer couldn't close their mouths, both astonished by what had happened... until Boomer was the first to speak up.

"That was so cool!" He blurted out.

"Radical, dude!" Butch concurred.

The tongue of the latter was dangling loosely from the edge of his mouth, his figure twitching from excitement. Admittedly, the green boy hadn't been like this for a long time.

Together, the two kept on chattering about how cool Brick was, and apparently didn't notice the 'too quietness' of their leader off the side. The red ruff was still quivering from anger that hadn't simmered down. His fists were curled up, and his eyes looked as if they were on fire. The words he thought _sickening_ were haunting him again...

"… _your filthy paws…"_

"… _nobody wants you around…"_

"… _get lost!"_

"… _they're only using you to defeat the puffs…"_

Soon enough his short trance was intervened by a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, Brick, you alright?"

It was Butch, calmed down with a bit of concerned look on his face. Brick frowned and pushed him away, a sign from him to leave him alone.

Butch was perplexed, but his expression soon gave wake to a devilish smile.

"You don't care about what they said, do you?" He suggested to Brick mockingly. Boomer snickered in support.

"Aww, did those mean people hurt our Bricky's _feelings?"_

The two roared with laughter, causing their leader to fume out of his eyes.

"Brick is a sissy! Brick is a sissy!" They chanted together, and that was enough fuel for Brick to blow his top once again.

"I'M NOT HURT! OKAY?! NOW SHUT YOUR PIEHOLES, AND LET'S JUST GO HOMMME!"

Brick's voice was so loud that it reverberated throughout the park. Boomer stood dumbstruck. Butch growled because of the damage Brick's voice had made in his ear. Not seeming to care, the leader ruff just turned around and took off from the ground, promptly heading for the observatory. Boomer followed suit in close range. Two streaks of color remained in where they had passed. Butch, who was left behind, mumbled about Brick being bossy and reluctantly decided to go after them. When suddenly, he remembered the money.

The raven haired boy looked down at his feet. There he saw, crumpled dollars with lots of footprints planted on them. They were quite dirty, and many were taken. Butch assumed it to be the citizens who caused all the racket.

"And they call us bad…" Butch rolled his eyes at their hypocrisy.

He collected the few dollars that were left and was ready to fly off.

"Hey!" A voice called him, stopping him from what he was about to do.

It was Mitch, who was badly injured. Cuts were all over his body, and he was barely standing on his feet.

"What do you want?" Butch asked, crossing his arms.

"You're not leaving until we end this fight!" Mitch shouted recklessly, despite his condition.

The green ruff smirked, and punched him in the face without a second thought. Mitch fell hard on the ground with a black eye now emerging on his face. Butch was just about ready to really let him have it, but was stopped dead in his tracks by someone behind him.

Butch turned around, his eyes meeting a pair of red ones. Brick was standing there holding Butch's arm firmly. He and Boomer had come back since their brother wasn't following.

"I said, LET'S JUST GO HOME." Brick said coldly, emphasizing the part he had spoken before.

"Yeah Butch, let's just ditch this place before the Powderpuffs arrive!" Boomer added.

Butch started to protest, but Brick didn't give him the chance and soared up to the sky with Butch still in his grip. Boomer tried to calm Butch down from struggling, while Brick kept silent.

Stopping Butch from a fight wasn't what Brick usually would have done. But he knew he wasn't angry at the citizens in Townsville anymore. He was angry at someone else, and he never wanted to see their snooty little faces again. And while they were on their way back home, he couldn't keep this one particular phrase out of his head.

"… _they're only using you to defeat the puffs…"_

"… _using you to defeat the puffs…"_

"… _to defeat the puffs…"_

_._

_._

_.._

" _Puffs…"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention? I'm also an artist at Deviantart. ;)  
> Comic versions of Chapter 1 & 2 can be found here:  
> [Love Deficiency Comic](http://clearlonelysky.deviantart.com/gallery/57844712/Powerpuffgirls-comic)


	2. I Fly Solo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What is it that you want from me?!" Mojo glared at his son.
> 
> "I want you to apologize, that's what!"
> 
> "This is ludicrous! I'm sorry I didn't remember! Now can I please have my route to my bedroom back?!"
> 
> Brick gritted his teeth at the monkey's insincere apology and grasped him by the throat whisking his feet off to mid-air.
> 
> "You don't care about us do you?! You act like you're our father and all, but it's all a fake, isn't it?!"

Mojo Jojo was on his desk working on yet another vile scheme to destroy the Powerpuff Girls. The whole observatory was overtaken by silence with the exception of the sound of a pencil scratching and the growls of a stressed monkey.

Mojo, the evil mastermind, had a hard time getting all his various plots together and kept crumpling up the blueprints he had previously worked on. Again, he scrunched the paper up into a ball and tossed the wad toward the trashcan. But the trashcan had no room left, in fact, other wads of paper were already sticking out from it. So instead of going straight into its destination, it bounced right off and landed next to all the other dispersed garbage around the bin.

"Urghh!"

This time, Mojo tore the blue print in half. Not caring where it headed, he threw the trash over his head and rubbed his temples. He had baggy dark circles hanging below his eyes, and his face looked like a corpse. It was obvious he hadn't slept in days.

The chimp reached for the nearly empty coffee pot on his desk. He poured the liquid into his mug until the last drop of it came out. He took a sip of it, almost spitting it out. It had already long gone cold and was definitely not helping him wake up. Mojo sighed heavily, and chose to drink it all up anyway instead of turning it all into waste.

Unfortunately, while he was practically forcing the liquid down his throat, a sudden crash from the ceiling startled the monkey to make him choke. The poor green chimp started coughing violently, his face red and his eyes teary within seconds. Luckily, after a while, Mojo succeeded in coughing the horrible liquid out. The green chimp inhaled and let out lungful of breaths while he put the mug back down to its original place. Then he realized his nose stung as if on fire and something was trickling down from his nostrils. Mojo scowled when a drop fell on his tongue. It was the bitter taste of caffeine.

"Curses…" he mumbled under his breath.

He was having a horrid day already, and someone just had to make it worse. He gritted his teeth and dug his fingernails deep into his palms forming two tight fists. Mojo immediately jerked himself around to see who was responsible.

But just as he was about to give off one of his famous tirades, he spotted his three loving boys. An amazing transition flashed by as Mojo forced a smile on his drowsy face.

"Boys!" The monkey's hands, no longer in fists, were held out in front of him in welcoming gesture.

Unlucky for him, none of the RRBs were interested in his efforts of hospitality. The leader ruff and the green boy were busy trading death glares, and for the blue boy... something else had caught his eyes. The moment he saw Mojo's disheveled and— _unfortunate_ state, the blond ruff quickly brought his palms to his mouth trying to suppress his laughter. He twitched noticeably, and his cheeks inflated so that it looked like two balloons were attached to his face. Yet he couldn't possibly hold back all his giggles from slipping out.

So with his face last seen entirely red and goofy, the blond boy released his cackles while wrapping his arms around his belly.

"You've got coffee coming out from your nose! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He tilted forward, almost falling to the floor. His brothers remained silent and only stared at Boomer irritably. Then as they glared at each other once again, both of them turned away making no eye contact with each other.

Mojo was absolutely baffled. It was not like he expected a cheerful reaction, but this was just absurd.

Boomer went on laughing. Only it was more of a hiccup now. Apparently it was either he hadn't acknowledged the fact that he was the only one laughing or he just didn't care. Mojo frowned and wiped his nose clean with a tissue. He then waited patiently for Boomer to stop, but it turned out that there was no need for him to do that; because the leader ruff who had been aggravated by his brother's incessant laughter finally slapped his blond brother across the face.

"SHUT UP! Will ya?!" Brick hollered.

Boomer's cackle stopped instantly. With that, the blue ruff rubbed the place where the impact was and gave Brick a dirty look. Butch just rolled his eyes.

Although it was what he wanted, the green chimp became uneasy when quiet took its place again. He spent a moment playing with his fingers while searching for a way to escape the awkwardness.

Just then, an idea popped in his head and his expression changed into an evil grin.

"It's glad to have you here, my boys." He announced, after clearing his throat. "Now that we've gathered together, how about we plan a plot to eliminate those accursed Powerpuffs? I've been organizing some details, and I need some assistance in the process of combining them all together."

Mojo was thrilled while he said this, already expecting a unanimous 'yes'. Unlike his enthusiasm though, the leader of the RRBs shook his head vigorously.

"Not gonna happen, I'm done with those stupid lame girls!"

In order to show them he was done talking, Brick shuffled over to Mojo's TV and turned it on. He then plopped on to Mojo's sofa, slouching entirely. The two ruffs and the chimpanzee with an oversized-brain blinked in bewilderment. It was hard for them to accept the unseemliness of Brick. So there they stood, gazing blankly at the back of Brick's head protruding slightly from the sofa.

Shaking his own, Butch was the first to recover.

"What do you mean you're done with them?! We still have to teach those sissies a lesson!"

"Yeah, what he said! And we didn't show them who's more stupider yet!" Boomer added. Butch eyed Boomer at this.

"Well, if they're such sissies, why do we have to deal with them?" The red ruff retorted, not even facing them.

The two ruffs couldn't believe what they were hearing. Brick, master of all pranks and mischief, the one who was always in for kicking Powerpuff butt was refusing to do so!

"We deal them cuz that's our job! Duh! Man, you're even dumber than Boomer!"

"Yea- _HEY!_ "

Boomer snarled at Butch but the green ruff paid no attention. The raven haired RRB's mind was only focused on his leader. He was waiting for a ground shaking rant from him… Nothing came. His face twisted in confusion. Was he actually okay with what he said?

Brick, actually, _was_ boiling at Butch's comment, but he thought it best to keep quiet. Pretty soon they would be demanding an explanation for his abnormal behavior, and the truth was… he didn't exactly know how to tell them. Why he was acting like this he could easily answer. He knew for sure he was angry at the girls. But the problem was, that brought him to a whole new question: _why was he angry at them?_

"Just what the heck is wrong with you?!"

"Have you totally lost your mind?!"

As Brick predicted, the two ruffs started prying for an answer. The long haired boy only focused more to the TV screen and ignored his brothers' gibbering in the background.

In the mean time, what the boys were oblivious about was the current state of their father. The sinister villain should have been the first to berate on his defiant son, but drowsiness was getting the better of him. His eyelids insistently dropped down and he was drooling from the edge of his mouth. A nasty scowl was planted on his face as he stood motionless like a zombie. How he just longed to collapse down to the floor and doze off, but the RRBs' rattling made that impossible. Whenever he attempted to get a short rest by closing his eyes shut, a loud clamor would bring him back from his little paradise—It was pure torture, his mental state touchier than ever. But since it was his boys, he was enduring it. The only thing he did was throw daggers at them through his barely open eyes, waiting till they would eventually leave.

Back to Butch and Boomer, Butch looked as if he was about to blow every gasket from his head. Boomer didn't look too different, only not as much as Butch. They used every insult they could think of in their word bank, but Brick wouldn't budge. At last, fed up being ignored, the blue and green-clad boy darted towards the TV and blocked the screen. Brick moved his head in various directions to get a glimpse of the screen again.

"Get out of the way! I can't see!"

Right after gaining his attention, Butch advanced closer to him. His knuckles were stuck to his sides as he shot a fierce look at him.

"I know what your problem is. You're scared of those girls aren't ya?"

"What?! No I'm not!"

"Yes you are! That's why you forced me to run away from them at the park!"

"Like total girlys!" Boomer emphasized.

"You keep out of this! You did the same as he did!" Butch hissed at his blond brother. The blue ruff replied with a 'hmmph' and puffed out his cheeks.

"I DID NOT RUN AWAY FROM THEM! NOW MOVE IT!"

The redhead hurled the remote control at his green brother. Butch looked away from Boomer just in time to dodge it. The device flew right past the green boy, missing its attempted target and colliding with the TV screen behind. Everyone gasped as it did, because instead of merely bouncing off of it, the remote went half way breaking through. Now there was an aperture in the center of the TV with large cracks spreading out from it. Some complicated electric wires were poking out along with an irritating buzzing sound from the disabled television.

"Whoah." Boomer remarked.

For a moment, no one could say a word. Then the red and green ruff broke out into offenses.

"Ya see what you did?!" Brick blamed Butch.

"ME?! How can this be my fault! You're the one who threw the dang thing!"

"You're the one who made me!"

"Not if you stop chickening out!"

" _ENOUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_ A voice interrupted.

All three ruffs turned their heads to the owner of the ear piercing shriek. The green chimp was huffing frantically with his fur all tangled. His paws were squeezing the top of his braincap in frustration, while his anger-reddened eyes made the boys recoil in horror. The stressed wreck approached closer to the three. Boomer even gulped.

"I had it with you three bickering in my homely residence!" He started off. "You burst in all of a sudden, thus damaging the ceiling and incapacitating me from my work! Then you refuse to cooperate to my brilliant plan, while disabling my television! But worst of all, your constant babbling is keeping me awake from my sleep! What is the point of your visit anyway?! GET OUT! GET OUT I TELL YOU! OUT!"

Mojo indicated the hole in the ceiling the RRBs made as he threw each ruff a threatening glare. The boys however, didn't look intimidated anymore. More like confused.

"You don't know why we're here?" Brick asked.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Mojo growled.

Brick's frown reappeared.

"It's your turn to take care of us bonehead!" He yelled.

"What are you talking about?!"

"A month ago, you and HIM agreed to take turns being our dad! _Remember?_ Right after you two had a stupid fight over who was the evil-er father!" ( **A/N: See 'custody battle'.** )

Mojo blinked wordlessly. A quick flashback passed before him. Brick was right. He and HIM did have a deal that very day. After realizing their battle was a tie, they had reached truce and agreed to trade turns as a father every first day of the month. Once it becomes their turn, it would become their right and responsibility to take care of the boys and the other wasn't allowed to interfere in anyway what so ever—They even signed a contract for it. Then HIM declared him to be the first to do so, insisting that he wanted to spend his 'last moments' with his boys. Mojo couldn't object after he lost at a game of rock-scissors-papers. Why on earth did he choose paper?

Back to reality, Mojo glanced at his calendar. Now, a month had already passed, and it reached to his time to be their father. He slapped his forehead. He had completely forgotten!

"I suppose I made a mistake." Mojo fake coughed trying to hide his embarrassment. "Make yourselves comfortable and please keep it down so I can snooze."

Mojo turned around and headed for his bedroom. He grumbled about not going to have his beauty sleep when a red figure blocked his way. Mojo looked up and saw a not too pleased Brick floating in the air.

"That's it? You forgot about your turn to take care of us, and you're just gonna walk off?"

"Yes, and it would be easier of a process if you comply in getting out of the way." Mojo replied in an annoyed tone. He tried to pass by Brick, but the redhead wouldn't let him.

"What is it that you want from me?!" Mojo glared at his son.

"I want you to apologize, that's what!"

"This is ludicrous! I'm sorry I didn't remember! Now can I please have my route to my bedroom back?!"

Brick gritted his teeth at the monkey's insincere apology and grasped him by the throat whisking his feet off to mid-air.

"You don't care about us do you?! You act like you're our father and all, but it's all a fake, isn't it?!"

"Let me down! How dare you…"

Mojo stopped in mid sentence as his eyes met Brick's. There was something about his eyes that made the monkey shudder. It wasn't the eyes of the playful son he knew. It was filled with fury and hatred, and for the first time in his life, he was actually scared of his red son.

"I.. I'm sorry…I was so caught up in my work that I…I…"

Brick didn't allow him to finish.

"YOU AND YOUR STUPID WORK! You're always thinking of another stupid plan to get rid of those girls and that's all you care about! I bet you think of us just as same as the other plans you got under your sleeve! We're not sons to you at all! We're just another crappy plan you had in mind, and nothing more! Come to think of it, you didn't even think about bringing us back to life did ya?!"

"Of course I did! It's just that… I knew for sure you would be killed again if I revive you, so I saw no point in…"

"You see?! We're nothing but another one of those stupid plots you got! You didn't bring us back because you only cared about failing in defeating them again!"

"That's not true! I…"

"SHUT UP!"

The next minute, with mighty force Mojo was shoved down to the ground with a loud 'thud'. The monkey groaned and panted as he was released from Brick's suffocating grip. He had barely been able to speak when he was held up in the air. The green and blue bystanders looked at their leader unbelievably.

"Dude, chill! He's just a stupid monkey!" Boomer told him.

"Yeah? Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to follow his lame orders anymore! I'm outta this stinkin' place! You guys with me?"

Brick looked down at them, still away from the floor. Butch, without reconsidering, shook his head and stood beside Mojo.

"I'm staying with monkey here, you've become such a wuss!"

"And you?" Brick now faced his indifferent blond brother. The blue boy looked over at both sides, unsure where to head.

"Come on, Boomer! He's a jerk without his pranks. He's just gonna boss you around!"

That made Boomer glare at Brick, remembering all the things the redheaded leader had done to him. Then he scurried next to where Butch was, without even looking back.

"Fine! Who needs you idiots anyway?"

Brick rocketed out the observatory. Again, the voices he heard from the mob at the park started whirling and echoing around his head. But he shook it all off. The red leader boy wasn't going to let any of that stuff take over his thoughts or let it get in his way. So what if all the words those stupid people said were true? He didn't care. Just like they all yelled unanimously, no one cared about him and wanted him around, but that didn't bother him. Of course it didn't. Who needs anyone else when you can just have yourself?

Above the city's skyline, maybe for the first time ever, only a single red line was seen with no other multiple colors following behind. The azure sky somewhat looked like an incomplete painting, with only the red crayon trail disappearing in short notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comic versions of Chapter 1 & 2 can be found here:  
> [Love Deficiency Comic](http://clearlonelysky.deviantart.com/gallery/57844712/Powerpuffgirls-comic)


	3. The Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Can you please hear me out? There's something that bothers me." Blossom persuaded, and looked at her sister intently. Buttercup was looking straight into the adamant eyes of her pink sister when she witnessed a reflection of her indignant self in her pupils. She seethed in frustration for a few moments, but in time, she gave in and tried her best to appease her anger. She folded her arms in front of her chest and sighed.
> 
> "Fine, talk leader girl. But make it fast."
> 
> "Do you.." Blossom hesitated, "really think it was the Rowdyruff Boys?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some references to the following episodes: "The Rowdyruff Boys", "Bubble Boy", and "Custody Battle". But I do not own these episodes, just this story. Let the chapter begin.

"Oh my god…" Blossom, the leader of the Powerpuff Girls murmured in disbelief.

The girls had rushed to the scene of havoc as soon as they received the hotline that there was trouble at the park, but none of them expected it to be this serious. Several ambulances and police cars had already encircled the aftermath of what was left of the park from the unforeseen attack. Plowed dirt and grasses were disarranged around shallow craters that seemed to have formed not long ago, and some shrubs, trees, and benches were blown back as if they were inflicted by strong shockwaves. As for casualties, thankfully nobody had been hurt badly enough to lose their life but regardless, some had been affected severely. Moans of those injured came everywhere as they were carried away by stretchers, and the police were trying their best to keep newly forming civilian crowds and reporters out. The three young heroes stood motionless before the chaos with their mouth agape. As much as their leader, the blue and green puffs could not hide their horror from the sight.

"Who could have done such a thing…" The blue girl squeaked as she came close to tears.

"I don't know, Bubbles." Her raven haired sister replied, gritting her teeth. "But whoever did this is going to pay."

Blossom quietly listened to her sisters' remarks as she scanned over the wrecked park again. Then she shook her head and tried to recover from her bewilderment. They needed to find out what happened.

"I know this is shocking," she said, "but first things first, we have to investigate."

Her sisters nodded and they decided to split up and look for clues. Blossom calmly assigned tasks for everyone in an orderly manner.

"Bubbles, you ask the police if they found out anything. Buttercup, you scout around and see if anyone needs help. See if you two can find witnesses. I'll search the scene."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the blue and green-clad girls zipped to their respective duties while the redheaded girl approached the area of where the incident seemed to have happened. Even from afar, she had noticed that burnt grass, sheared bushes, and fallen trees were surrounding a certain location—a small region that has stayed clear of damage. And the bodies of injured citizens were all scattered around that area as well. With here as a starting point, someone must have blasted a laser gun of some sort and knocked back the citizens in all directions. Blossom furrowed her eyebrows. But why? Why not destroy the town itself if he or she wants to take over Townsville? Why inflict this many citizens directly? And wait, why were so many citizens gathered at this spot in the first place?

Blossom contemplated some more as she took a few more steps forward and noticed something unusual on the ground.

"Stones…?" She said out loud, puzzled.

What she saw were numerous pebbles, rocks, and stones of all sizes. There were so many that some of them have made a sizeable pile. Blossom placed her hand on her chin. Why were so many of these stones close to the starting site of attack?

"MITCH!"

Before she could think further, Blossom immediately turned her head to face the devastating cry of her green-clad sister. Buttercup was frantically following and grabbing on to the edge of a stretcher as a battered and inert Mitch was being transported to a nearby ambulance.

"Mitch, are you okay?! What happened to you!" Buttercup called for him again as she searched his face for any sign of consciousness.

Without a second thought, Blossom raced to the scene to check on the condition of their kindergarten friend, and the equally worried Bubbles followed soon after. As they both floated above the stretcher, they couldn't help but cover their mouths. Their school friend was badly wounded with burnt marks and cuts all over his limp body and an obviously painful black eye. At Buttercup's panicking voice, Mitch slowly regained consciousness, opened his eyes, and arduously moved his head towards Buttercup. He struggled to speak.

"The..the Rowderup boys.. they were bullying us, so we... we..."

"The Rowdyruff Boys?!" Buttercup shouted incredulously.

The beaten boy nodded with all his strength that was left, and let his head droop as he blacked out.

"Please back away and give him some space! We need to get him to the hospital!" At that moment, one of the paramedics pushed the now shrieking Buttercup away from the stretcher and loaded Mitch and themselves on the ambulance.

"Wait! I need to know if he's going to be okay! Mitch! MITCH!"

Buttercup screamed out to the back doors of the ambulance as they relentlessly closed right in front of her face. The ambulance took off instantly as it let out a blaring green siren. The green puff was about to chase after the vehicle but she stopped in her tracks when she realized it was futile. There was nothing she could do for him. Blossom and Bubbles looked at her with saddened eyes and slowly descended from the air to comfort her. But when they neared her, they paused as they sensed her emotional state.

Even though her head was lowered to hide her expression, they could fully recognize the steaming rage seething inside of her. Her tightly clenched fists were quivering so much it shook the whole of her body. Blossom and Bubbles worriedly exchanged glances and looked back at their sister. They were unsure of what to say to the infuriated Powerpuff, but Blossom was the first to offer her condolence.

"Buttercup.. he's going to be okay."

"Yeah Buttercup.." Bubbles supported. "We all know him. He's tough."

At that moment, the two girls jumped back as the green puff suddenly tilted her head up to the sky and hollered to the pit of her stomach.

"I SWEAR I'M GOING TO KILL THEM! How dare they hurt my friend?!"

She huffed deeply from her unsettled rage and turned abruptly to Blossom with eyes filled with vengeance.

"Let's split up. Do whatever we can to find them. The first one to find them signal the others, that way it's faster."

Without waiting for her confirmation, the enraged puff was about to bolt up to the sky.

"Wait Buttercup!" Blossom intercepted.

Buttercup fired an annoyed scowl to her redheaded sister.

"We don't have _time_ to hang around and wait for you to come up with a plan! They escaped before we even reached this place, and if we don't hurry up, we're gonna lose them!"

"Can you please hear me out? There's something that bothers me." Blossom persuaded, and looked at her sister intently. Buttercup was looking straight into the adamant eyes of her pink sister when she witnessed a reflection of her indignant self in her pupils. She seethed in frustration for a few moments, but in time, she gave in and tried her best to appease her anger. She folded her arms in front of her chest and sighed.

"Fine, talk leader girl. But make it fast."

"Do you.." Blossom hesitated, "really think it was the Rowdyruff Boys?"

Buttercup narrowed her eyes, her anger almost boiling back up. "Are you saying Mitch was lying?"

"No no, I don't mean to imply that." Blossom assured. "But doesn't it seem strange to you that all this time the boys who would only pretty much steal, bully, or prank around suddenly assault civilians with the direct intent to severely hurt them? I'm not saying that what they did before was right, but to this extent this time.."

"Blossom," Buttercup cut in and scowled. "The boys have tried to hurt people in the past. When they first appeared, they tried to throw down public transportation with civilians inside it for god's sake! They purposefully spit and try to shoot down an airplane every time as a daily hobby and-"

"And I heard they tried to squish poor mayor with Mojo's robot last time!" Bubbles chimed in. Buttercup eyed Bubbles for interrupting her but was glad for her support.

"But still, something seems amiss." Blossom said with skepticism. "They have been quiet, nowhere to be seen for a month. But then they suddenly appear and terrorize the 'park'? Not Townsville itself?"

It was true. The Rowdyruff Boys were nowhere to be seen for the past month, which was odd because they were always somewhere around causing mischief whether it was stealing someone's pocket money or taking over the hotdog stand. But the girls had paid no further attention to their disappearance because it had made their lives easier. Then the first time after a month, today, they hear that they had reappeared and caused this mayhem.

"So?" Buttercup held out her palms. She was getting impatient. "Maybe they were hiding and devising to do this with HIM or monkey brain!"

"To gain what? What would they get from attacking passersby at a park?"

"Why should I care?! They're just sick brats who think they can do whatever they want and get away with it!"

"Yeah Blossom, you know how they always treated our townspeople badly." After letting the conversation go on for a while, Bubbles sided with Buttercup, hoping to ease the situation. She was nervous that this would lead to another fight between the siblings which was what she least wanted. Blossom was thinking the same thing, but she insisted to push on. She had a feeling there was more to what was on the surface.

"I'm just saying that this doesn't seem like a pre-mediated assault. Looks more of an impulsive outburst. And whenever those boys had the urge to do something bad, it was never this heinous."

"Well guess what Blossom?" The green puff rolled her eyes. "Mitch saw what he saw. He has nothing to gain from lying."

"The police officers told me it was them, too." Bubbles timidly agreed.

"See? There's nothing more to gain from your reasoning. You're wasting time, so I'm out of here."

But before she could turn to leave, Blossom grabbed Buttercup's shoulder and stopped her once more. Buttercup, irritated to be intercepted again, nearly shoved the pink girl away, but held back.

"What now?"

"I still don't think we should split up."

"And why is that?" Buttercup growled.

Blossom let go of her shoulder and sighed. This was not going to be something Buttercup wanted to hear, but she was sincerely worried about her sister's safety, especially in her current state of mind.

"Because Buttercup, you're angry. And you tend to become... reckless when you can't control your anger."

Just as Blossom expected, Buttercup's eyes immediately lit up with rage.

"Of course I'm angry!" She snarled. "Did you miss what happened, boss-girl? Our friend was injured!"

"I'm aware of that! I'm just afraid that-"

"-that I'll do something stupid?!" Buttercup finished the sentence for her. The red-bowed girl widened her eyes in shock.

"No, that you'll get hurt!" She defended.

But Buttercup was far from convinced, and it only further scratched her self-esteem. She just couldn't believe the lack of confidence her sister had in her! She had it with her thinking that she was more capable than her—always trying to be perfect, composed, and logical even in a situation like this! _Who does she think she is?!_

"I will NOT get hurt, and I will NOT do anything reckless!" The green puff yelled in outrage. "I understand that you don't trust me Blossom, like you NEVER do, but that doesn't give you any right to tell me what to do all the time!"

"Buttercup just listen!" Blossom cried desperately.

"No, I'm done with listening! I don't trust your oh-so-perfect-smart-brain either! If you're not going to go with _my_ plan for once, then so be it!"

Buttercup furiously blasted off from the ground as forcefully as she could, making Blossom and Bubbles wince and brace themselves from the blow. And by the time they opened their eyes to search for Buttercup, she was already gone.

Bubbles fidgeted with her hands and looked at the ground as Blossom brought her palm to her forehead. The leader puff was a little stressed from her green sister mischaracterizing her intentions, but she knew that she had a point. She looked back at the ruined park one last time and saw more ambulance workers hastening to aid the wounded. She closed her eyes and turned away. Buttercup was right. What does it matter if there are some questions left unanswered? At this point it was quite obvious who the culprits were, and it was more important to focus on finding those boys and making sure they don't hurt anymore innocent citizens... or friends. That moment, the flashback of Mitch's tattered condition flowed into her mind and she bit her lip in regret.

"Uh.. Blossom?"

Blossom snapped back to reality as Bubbles cautiously uttered her name. She was wearing a look of concern as she had observed her change of expressions.

"I'm okay." Blossom smiled a little, trying to relieve her sister's worries. After that, she put on a determined look and declared their next course of action. "Let's split up like she said, holler if you find them or if something happens. And if you can find Buttercup, look over her and see if she's doing okay. She won't like me following her."

Bubbles nodded her head and was close to take off when she remembered something to report.

"Blossom, I didn't have the chance to say this because.. you know."

Bubbles inferred to the dispute Blossom just had with Buttercup which the redhead readily acknowledged.

"Go ahead." Blossom urged.

"There's something else the officer told me. It wasn't actually all the Rowdyruff Boys that attacked the citizens... it was, Brick alone."

"What?" Blossom scrunched up her face in confusion. _Brick?_

"It's true." Bubbles affirmed. "The officers and some witnesses told me it was the red one who suddenly went crazy and blasted people away."

It didn't take long for Bubbles' words to sink in. Blossom's expression contorted with anger. That scoundrel! The leader of those boys who always suggests what evil deed they will do next. He decided to experiment on a more sinister move now, didn't he?

She clenched her teeth, _hard_. It didn't matter what the reason was anymore. Her counterpart had taken it too far this time, and he was about to get it.


	4. Having Fun?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But while he was guiding the telescope to the direction he wanted, he was perplexed to suddenly find the view very blurry. Some figure was blocking his vision, something green and…
> 
> As the focus adjusted and aligned, Butch witnessed a scowling green Powerpuff shooting death glares straight into the lens on the other side.
> 
> "Having fun, butt-head?"

Back at Mojo's observatory, the fatigued and shaken monkey had told his sons to do whatever they pleased while he rested in his bedroom. But, not to touch _anything_ in his weapon chamber. As for his red son, he decided to confront him after he hopefully came back, and when they both were in a better mood.

So with the two boys left to themselves, they decided to search for something entertaining since the TV was busted due to obvious reasons. However, before they could attempt to access their father's precious weapon chamber which he repeatedly prohibited them from entering, their stomachs rumbled simultaneously as if rehearsed. Thus with lunch time nearing, their first target was fixed to the fridge. The starving boys rummaged the interior to find anything edible, but much to their luck, the shelves were practically empty. The only leftover was a rotten dish covered entirely in molds with a nasty stench to match. Normally the boys wouldn't mind mildly rotten food, but what Mojo had in his fridge was starting to take a form of its own. Instinctively, the two ruffs backed away and pinched their nose. **(A/N: Let's just say they have one.)**

"Bleh! What does he have growing here?" Butch grimaced.

"Close the door! I think it's coming alive!" Boomer yelled urgently.

Butch was one step away from slamming the fridge door closed when Boomer noticed something in the corner.

"Wait! Can we eat that?" Boomer pointed to a head of broccoli that was still in decent shape. Butch however, had a different opinion and bonked his brother on his head.

"You idiot, that ain't food!" He scolded, and proceeded to close the door. He knew green was his signature color, but any food in his color was not in his favorites list. Boomer rubbed his head and recovered.

"It isn't?" He looked at Butch dumbly. Butch ignored him and turned around to poke his head into some of the kitchen cabinets. What he found were herbs, spices, some kitchen utensils, and finally, a bag of dried spaghetti noodles.

"Yo Boomer, you know how to cook this?" He turned to Boomer. Boomer shook his head.

The green ruff scoffed. "Yeah, what would you know? Cooking is for sissies anyway." Butch tossed the bag to the side and flew towards the entrance of Mojo's weapon chamber. "Forget food for now, let's get into some action." He said with anticipation.

But unfortunately for the spike-haired boy, the entrance had an intricate paw-print scanning machine, which needed Mojo's paw in order to access his desired destination.

"Darn it!" Butch growled, glaring at the device. He looked down at his fingerless hand and gave up. He considered blasting the door down, but that would wake the chimp from his slumber and set off his never-ending rant. Butch was not about to put up with that especially when he remembered the dude's horrid appearance not too long ago which gave him the creeps.

"Hey Butch!" Boomer called from a distance. "Check this out! You can see the whole stupid town from here!"

Butch looked to Boomer's direction to find him gazing excitedly into Mojo's giant telescope projecting out from the observatory.

"That is so lame." Butch expressed disapproval, but nonetheless advanced towards where Boomer was.

"Hey hey, there's this fat dude about to jump into a pool. He's gonna blow!" Boomer sniggered and looked away from the telescope to check on Butch's reaction. Butch still didn't look impressed with his arms folded in front of him also with half-lidded eyes of boredom.

"Back off. I can do something much cooler." Butch demanded and elbowed Boomer out of the way.

"Hey! This isn't fair!" Boomer resisted. "Who gives you the right?"

"I do! Because I'm much cooler than you, and besides-" Butch's retort was cut short by another loud grumble erupting from his stomach. His hunger was unbearable. The green ruff let out a displeased grunt and reached into his pocket to take out the few dirty crumpled dollars he picked up from before and threw it carelessly over to his brother. "Go get some food! Get like 20 burgers or something."

Boomer made no effort to catch the money and watched as they landed on the floor.

"Dude! This isn't enough to buy that many!"

"Wow, you can do math?" Butch replied mockingly. "Well then steal the rest, you dum-dum!"

Boomer creased his eyebrows in complete annoyance. "Why can't you go? Why should I always be the one to fetch your stinkin' food?"

"Because! You never do anything useful! Now scram!" Butch barked.

The blond ruff flung a dirty look at his brother and hissed, but did nothing more to protest. The disgruntled blue ruff grudgingly swiped up the money and stormed out of Mojo's lair through the opening of the ceiling that had been made a while ago.

"What a loser…" Butch mumbled to himself.

He shook his head and peered into the telescope to scout for a victim for his mischief. In proximity, a little boy was riding his bicycle towards a supermarket in high spirits. With a sly smirk, the green boy dashed towards the refrigerator and reached for the spoiled moldy food. He again, recoiled from the putrid odor and balanced the plate on the tip of his hand trying not to get any on him. He then carefully hovered over to the window of the observatory and aimed for the clueless child who he had spotted for his target. Applying mighty force, Butch hurled the disgusting substance straight for the bicycle rider. But instead of hitting its human target, the decayed matter collided with the back wheels of the bicycle, splattering all over the tires. The gooey and repulsive slime that used to be food hindered the spins of the wheels and caused the little boy to tumble down from his bicycle. Though it was not his original intention, the green ruff was satisfied and roared with laughter.

"Score!" He punched his fist in the air. He eased himself from his remaining chuckles and looked around the quiet and empty observatory. His face tightened.

'Boy, it isn't as fun with no one around.' He realized. He knew Brick would have totally agreed what he just did was super evil. And he would have been more help in torturing their brother—if only he hadn't turned into such a crybaby like Boomer.

'Pfff… Boomer that dork, always acting like a total loser.' He scoffed internally. But then again, he thought, it's probably better having him around rather than being stuck here alone.

Butch grunted. 'He'd better be coming back with my burgers soon.' He frowned as he recounted what happened earlier, how he pushed his brother away from the telescope and ordered him to get his food. Then he paused as an unexpected thought flashed. Maybe he was… a bit _harsh_ on him?

Butch's face dropped as he instantly made a disgusted face and cursed innerly. He was appalled for even thinking such a weak thought! If his brother was that much of a _wuss_ to not handle a little teasing, then maybe he shouldn't be a Rowdyruff!

The spiky-haired green ruff entirely ignored the thought that had just taken place and turned his attention back to the telescope. He had better check on his brother to make sure he wasn't doing anything dumb.

But while he was guiding the telescope to the direction he wanted, he was perplexed to suddenly find the view very blurry. Some figure was blocking his vision, something green and…

As the focus adjusted and aligned, Butch witnessed a scowling green Powerpuff shooting death glares straight into the lens on the other side.

"Having fun, butt-head?" She casually inquired, then drilled into the telescope lens in full speed. Before Butch could even absorb the situation, Buttercup blasted out from the other end, charged into Butch at his mid-section, and sent him crashing out of the walls of the observatory with her.

ㅡ

Meanwhile, Boomer was muttering under his breath how unfair things were for him as he sluggishly walked down the sidewalk. Now that Brick was gone Butch thought he could make him do whatever he wanted. He was bossing him around just as much as Brick, what a jerk! At least Brick would sometimes stand on his side and stop Butch from bullying him. Though… he would do that for a second then get right back to teasing him with his green brother. But still, Butch thought he was the leader now, oh so _mighty_ and _tough_ , when he really isn't! He was starting to miss his red brother…

Boomer looked up as he reached Larry's Burgerville. His stomach was fretting to be fed. The blue ruff smirked and prepared himself to bust into the franchise. There were more important matters to deal with. _He was craving for fast food._

The blond Rowdyruff sailed into the restaurant, breaking the windows in the process. The workers and customers jerked their attention to him with surprised eyes. Boomer hovered towards the ordering counter past the line of waiting customers, and came eye-to-eye with the cashier.

"Pack your burgers before I trash this place! Hand me.. uh.. 20 or somethin'!" He threatened.

The cashier and the workers in the back blinked their eyes then nodded their heads unwillingly.

"We'll prepare them in the back and come back." One of them said solemnly.

"Make it quick!" Boomer spat, then kicked the cash register in front of him to show that he was serious.

The workers obliged as they all gathered in the back… well, at least they seemed to oblige. Boomer floated in his place with a sly confident look, but that look quickly vanished as the employees came back with spatulas and frying pans in their hands.

"Wh..wha.. what are you doing?" Boomer stuttered in befuddlement.

He looked around as he suddenly sensed a stiff ambience. What he saw were angry pairs of eyes everywhere—not just the employees, but the customers at their tables and the customers who were waiting in line behind him as well. Boomer looked back at the workers at the counter. He let out a warning growl.

"You're making a big mistake…"

"No, _you_ are! How dare you show your face before us after attacking those innocent citizens!"

"Wait, that wasn't me, that was-"

A sizzling hot spatula smacked the blue ruff across his cheek causing his head to jolt to the other direction. His eyes bulged out from the impact. In an instant, customers and workers alike threw or swung at him with whatever they could grab in their hands. Sodas, french fries, burgers, straws, trays all flew towards him, but Boomer came to his senses and dodged most of them in the nick of time. He let out a battle cry and zapped away the objects still coming in, and afterwards tackled the employees one by one to enter the grilling space in the back. The workers landed on the floor with an 'oomph!' or collided with the stoves and the cabinets.

Just then, one of the employees accidently touched the handle of the french fry fryer during his fall, and sent a pile of hot french fries with sprays of boiling oil flying right towards a fallen employee on the floor. Boomer, witnessing the scene, darted to the helpless worker and yanked him out of the danger zone without thinking. The french fries and boiling oil showered on the floor right in front of them.

'That was close…' Boomer let out a sigh, when he suddenly realized what he had done.

Boomer gawked around his surroundings as the workers who had witnessed the happening stared at him with mirroring expressions. On the contrary, the customers who had not seen what had happened in the back were just about to barge in to the back space of the restaurant. Using the counter as a barricade to block another array of flying objects, Boomer hid himself momentarily, then rapidly snatched up some burgers displayed on the rack with super speed and rocketed out of the franchise. The angry mob that had formed in the restaurant continued to throw their last food and booed at the retreating Rowdyruff.

Boomer soared above the sky with shaking eyes. After making some distance with the fast food restaurant, the blue ruff stopped in mid air to organize his thoughts. The obviously overwhelmed blond boy searched his head for answers. _What the heck just happened…?!_

"Put down the burgers, sucker!" A voice interrupted.

Emerging in front of him was a displeased Powerpuff with pig-tails. Boomer sneered and faced his counterpart.

"What'ya gonna do? Beat me up?" That moment, Boomer zoned out for a second as he started to get a déjà vu. **(A/N: Déjà vu from** _ **Bubble Boy**_ **.)**

His blue counterpart didn't miss that chance and charged towards him, smashing Boomer in his face with the blow of her punch. Boomer went sailing towards a nearby skyscraper. Debris flew out from the collision and engulfed him in dusts. The blue boy was dazed for a moment, but shook it off. He looked down at his hands and discovered the burgers he pilfered completely ruined or lost from the blow. He frowned and eyed Bubbles.

"Oh, now you're toast!" He hissed.

Bubbles stuck her tongue out at him, when suddenly, large crashes resounded not so far away. The blue super-beings both geared their heads towards the direction of the cacophony. Streaks of dark and light green repeatedly collided with each other as spectacular displays of attack went back and forth between the two. Their siblings had already engaged in battle.

'Great,' Bubbles thought, 'I've found her. Now all I have to do is keep an eye on her and look for Brick while handling this rascal. A piece of cake, right?'

Bubbles gulped and looked back to the spot where Boomer originally was only to find him not there. She hurriedly searched sideways to locate him, when a sudden strike of pain inflicted her back. The blue girl was sent crashing into the pavement face first and screeched to a stop after about 20 yards. Bubbles got up and recovered fast enough to move out of Boomer's subsequent attack. Boomer landed hard with two feet on the pavement where Bubbles used to be. The impact caused a bigger crater to appear, and a small earthquake knocked Bubbles back a little. The blue puff regained her balance and got back into her offensive stance.

Nope. Cross that previous thought, this was not going to be easy. With still no sign of Brick anywhere, Bubbles hollered a sonic scream for her pink sister to hear.

' _Blossom! Buttercup and I got the others, GO FIND BRICK!'_


	5. Reds' Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why did you hurt those people? Why?!" She prompted for his answer.
> 
> "Because!" Brick zipped out and above the water after catching his breath. "They were stupid enough to attack first and call me names! Ya happy?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter dedicated to the Reds! Whoohoo!

Blossom was zooming across a pine forest detached from Townsville by the time she received her blue sister's message. Her face lightened from the news. So Brick _was_ alone by himself, she confirmed.

Moments ago, the leader puff had asked a few townspeople if they had seen the boys, and some of them claimed that they witnessed a single red streak of light last found heading for Fuzzy's forest. Blossom was bemused to hear only Brick's signature light was spotted, but still thanked them and headed for her next destination. However unlike what she expected, all she found when she arrived at Fuzzy's cabin was the furry pink monster playing tranquilly on his Banjo, tilting his body back and forth on his rocking chair. Naturally, as soon as the hillbilly spotted the pink puff in the corner of his eyes, the creature in overalls rose from his seat, gnarling and threatening for her to _get off of his propert-ay!_ Needless to say, before the pink-clad girl could ask him anything about seeing Brick, she had to evade the gun shots from his rifle and was kicked out for trespassing into his territory.

Back to the present moment, Blossom was scavenging the periphery of Fuzzy's lodge, hoping to find any sign of the red boy. If he hadn't taken over Fuzzy's cabin, then there was a chance that he probably was somewhere here in the woods.

As her search continued on, the leader girl was recounting on how much it was a relief the way things were unfolding. She had previously worried that they might, as an individual, run into an outnumbered ambush, but a one-on-one situation was definitely good news for them three. Though the leader girl wasn't clear on why her red counterpart had isolated himself from his brothers, she wiped it out from her concern. It was odd for sure, but at the same time it was perfect opportunity for her. _Especially_ since she personally wanted to deal with him herself. She was confident that she'll be able to handle her counterpart on her own, and she trusted her sisters (even Buttercup) the same.

ㅡ

Blossom assumed correctly. The red-capped Rowdyruff had arbitrarily selected an area within the vast forest as his hideout. Nonetheless, he had made a pretty decent choice as to select a place with a small lake and an abandoned but fixable wooden lodge. Currently, the red ruff was skipping stones on the lake as his mind loosely brooded over some thoughts.

Then, after spending some time skipping stones immaculately over the lake, for some reason, Brick's face gradually formed a discontented scowl as he threw one stone after the other… Until finally, he angrily fired the next stone in his hand to the bottom of the lake, causing wide ripples to disperse throughout the water's surface. He huffed and looked down into the lake to see his reflection resurfacing as the ripples dissipated. He stomped over to a distant tree stump and plopped on to it. He was done with this activity. It inevitably reminded him of the stoning from the mob.

'Those stupid weaklings… thinking that they can stand up to me, Brick!' He boiled, but stopped shortly. He placed his cheek on his hand and slightly crouched forward.

'Ah, what's the point,' he thought, 'I'm done with them.'

The red boy was dead serious about this. This wasn't just a one-time deviation from his evil-ridden life, he really had no will to go back. And not even his two fathers were going to drag him back to it.

Speaking of 'father,' Brick creased his eyebrows as he thought of his red-clawed demon parent. The truth was, Mojo and the mobs were not the only reason for his sudden eruption of temper today. In fact, it was HIM who had already made him build up unresolved questions toward his life as a villain.

HIM would always reiterate to him and his brothers that their powers were unconquerable and over-powering, and since they were given the special advantage, they should therefore dominate the ones who were pathetic and weak. But Brick was lately getting tired of the whole 'we-have-to-rule-over-the-world' speech from HIM, always berating and driving them to destroy and train down at his underground lair. Ever since they were brought back from the dead, that's what HIM pushed them to do, and that's exactly what they had to do during the last entire month they spent with HIM.

Brick held a grudge on that. Long ago, right after their resurrection, they had their first vigorous training session. It lasted for weeks with almost no sleep and rest. But after that very day that they were let out above ground to make their reappearance, their red-clawed father had time to time allowed them outside to the real world as a sort of recess. But last month, after agreeing on equal custody with Mojo, HIM reverted back to his old method. He made them constantly go through intensive training, and when they demanded for their rest and fun time, instead of letting them out, he let them play video games and fed them as much junk food as they wanted. His brothers seemed content from the reward, and Brick was too at first, but he was beginning to feel differently.

Sure, he liked blowing up and demolishing creatures down at HIM's territory, but he found playing pranks and harassing the people outside more entertaining. He wanted to give a kid a wedgie just for kicks, he wanted to punch the candy machine to make candies flow out, and he wanted to vandalize walls with graffiti. To Brick, life underground at HIM's kingdom was like that of imprisonment, no matter how much HIM would pamper him with other distractions. Besides, the red ruff was keen enough to recently become suspicious of the liquid HIM kept injecting into their veins occasionally. Weren't they already immune to cooties already? Why did they have to keep taking the dose?

Unfortunately though, the Rowdyruff had no potency to complain. He was well aware that HIM was the one who had the ultimate power to let them free. And _he_ was the one who had omnipotent control as long as they were inside his realm. He winced a little, as he remembered the last time he tried to defy him.

" _Why can't we go out? Why can't we do whatever we want?! And what's with the syringe again?!" Brick yelled at his red father in frustration._

" _Brick my dear son, you're asking an awful lot of questions today…" The red devil put together his claws. "Daddy told you that it's medicine to make you stronger." He cooed in his echoing voice._

" _Well I don't feel stronger!" Brick snarled. "And I don't need it, cuz I'm already tough enough to kick butt! And it'll be yours next pops, if you don't let me OUTTA HERE!"_

_With his son's deafening tantrum ringing in his year, HIM's eyes flamed with fire. He instantly gathered up black smoke-like essence and started to choke his red son with his formidable dark powers._

" _You dare DEFY ME?! You're forgetting your place, you disrespectable piece of dirt! Here I am INVINCIBLE, and I will not cease until you swear that you will NEVER go against me again!"_

_Brick squirmed and writhed in pain as he felt as if every inch of power he possessed was being drained from his body._

" _SWEAR TO ME AT ONCE!" HIM bellowed again in his dark voice._

_Butch and Boomer who were watching the commotion prompted Brick to answer him._

" _Dude! What's your problem? Just tell him what he wants!"_

" _Yeah, are you crazy?!"_

_Brick struggled to cough out an answer. "Alright alright! I'll do what you want!.. Now let me go!"_

" _You PROMISE?!" Him squeezed tighter._

" _Y-yeah! I promise!" Brick yelped._

_HIM released his son, and Brick's body dropped in an instant. Showing no remorse, HIM nonchalantly walked towards his son in slow steps and held out the syringe in his claw._

" _Now my child, be a good boy, and show your arm to your father." He said with his voice calmed down. The end of the needle flashed brightly. "This is going to hurt a little." He grinned evilly._

_Brick subdued his heavy uptake of breaths and reluctantly pulled up his sleeve._

" _I'm no baby…" He grumbled._

Brick found himself grumbling the last phrase out loud as he got his grip back to reality. He automatically clenched his fists. He _was_ no baby. And powerful or not, he wasn't going to take it from HIM anymore! HIM was dead wrong if he thought he could overpower and belittle him like that again! And anybody else, for that matter too! Brick recalled the scornful eyes from the mob, Mojo's look of disdain, and his brothers' disapproving scowl. Just as he was glad to be released from that scoundrel of a father, he was mobbed by some pathetic nobodies and THEN, that monkey brain picked up a nerve to downgrade his existence! Not to mention his useless brothers decide to betray him and side with him, those idiots! And this entire baggage was dumped on him for none other than _one reason!_ — _The Powerpuff Girls!_

Brick's eyes enlarged as he realized he had tracked down the very end source of his anger. _Of course!_ He grimaced. _This_ was why he was angry at them! None of this would have happened if it weren't for those losers! And he had enough of it! He was absolutely fed up of being told that he had to destroy those meddling Powerpuffs— _train_ because they were already behind them due to lost time, and just _listen to orders_ because apparently that was their _job_ , their _duty_ , their _purpose_ for being brought to life! _They_ were the reason he and his brothers had to be controlled and manipulated all their life! _They_ were the reason he was so miserable right now! And _they_ had it all easy, because basically everybody around them thought they were all _cute_ and _loveable,_ letting them do whatever for saving their butts!

Hah! It disgusted the boy to no end. There was a time when Brick thought that he _wanted_ to defeat the Powerpuff Girls. The time when he thought it was _cool_ to mindlessly follow what HIM and everybody else pressured him to do. But not anymore. If those annoying little sissies showed their face ever again in front of him, then-

"Got'cha." A familiar voice announced from behind.

Brick flinched and turned around, hoping to hell it wasn't who he thought it was. Alas, unlucky for him, it was Blossom looking straight at him with hands to her sides. The red ruff growled under his breath and stood up from his tree stump. _Oh great_ , one of them shows her _idolized self_ when he least wants to see them.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Brick angrily demanded.

Blossom narrowed her eyes. "Don't play dumb, Brick. What makes you think you can just terrorize innocent civilians in the park?"

The pink puff tilted her head to the side and crossed her arms. The red ruff narrowed his eyes at her as well. Oh sure, it's always about her _innocent_ citizens.

"What makes you think that's any of your business?!" Brick snapped with contempt. Blossom dropped her mouth from his ridiculous comeback.

"Because it _is_ my business! I protect those people, Sherlock!" She argued, and positioned into her battle stance. _Seriously?_ Brick just crossed his arms and taunted his counterpart.

" _I protect those people!_ " He mocked her tone. "Aww, look at you! Thinking you're such a _perfect hero._ Nosey miss goody-two-shoes thinks that she's in charge of everything!"

Blossom, who had enough of his mockery, took the offensive and dashed towards him in top speed. Brick however, was not up to it. He easily side-stepped her, causing her to kick on her breaks and come to a stop right before she reached the lake.

"I don't have time to deal with your girl-punches." Brick jeered slyly. "Go back to your doll-house before you cry yourself home."

The pink puff faced her foe and smirked. "Oh yeah? It looks like you have lots of time on your hands." She said, eyeing their surroundings. "After running helplessly from your responsibilities like a _coward_."

Right as Brick's head steamed from the insult, the super-humans charged at each other at the same time. Meeting at the middle, Brick was first to deliver an attack as he uppercutted his enemy up to the sky. Blossom caught herself, and seeing Brick soar up to apply a punch, she countered with her elbow and spun around. She kicked him in the abdomen, sending him back to the ground with a loud thump. Blossom soon followed him down but was sprung over him as Brick kicked his legs up. The pink puff landed a short distance away, and both rose up but Brick was quicker. He put his hands together and blasted Blossom to a tree behind her, then the red ruff pursued his target, only to be frozen by Blossom's ice breath. Blossom took a hold of the created ice piece, zoomed over above the lake, and thrust her frozen counterpart into the body of water. The force she applied was so hard that the ice chunk ignored the water's buoyancy and shattered at the bottom of the lake, breaking the red boy free.

Brick swam up the swirling waves formed from the impact to grab his red cap that came loose. He then stuck his head out above the water's surface and inhaled deep breaths. Blossom was waiting for him in front of the lake with her arms crossed.

"Why did you hurt those people? Why?!" She prompted for his answer.

"Because!" Brick zipped out and above the water after catching his breath. "They were stupid enough to attack first and call me names! Ya happy?!"

Then, instead of charging towards her, Brick zoomed back down to the grass and shook water off of his body. He seemed to have lost interest in getting back to battle. Blossom, perplexed, stared at him momentarily, but let down her guard anyways.

"That's the best you can come up with?" She scoffed. "Do you really expect me to believe that a crowd of citizens just ganged up on you and, ...wait..." She paused as something that previously bothered her from the investigation found its way back into her head. The stones...The citizens gathered in one place... _for what reason?_

"Did they…" Blossom continued, " _stone_ you?"

Brick was squeezing water out from his cap when he heard her. He scrunched up his face. "Yeah? How'd you know?"

Blossom collected her thoughts shortly and enumerated her reasoning. "There were stones that were piled near the site of the attack. So one, it's strange to think that anyone would have 'coincidentally' gathered up stones at the attack site just for fun, so it must have been used for a weapon _during_ the attack. Two, I assume it was the citizens that chose that for a weapon since it's highly unlikely that you would do so when you have your powers."

Brick blinked as Blossom finished. He squeezed the water from his long hair too, and put his cap back on.

"Nice try, nerd-brain." He sneered. "But it was _before_ my attack, not _during_. Those wimps were too busy screaming and running away afterwards when I fired them with my awesome ray." The red ruff gloated proudly. Blossom frowned and internally punched him in the face for his audacious statement.

"Now, if you've finally figured out the truth, get lost before your girliness wears off on me." Brick snapped. Seeing their little battle was over, he walked past the pink girl, towards the wooden lodge.

"How can I be sure you're not the one who started it?" Blossom inquired with antipathy. Brick halted in his tracks.

"And another thing," Blossom continued. "You hardly even get hurt from those stones, but those people you attacked were seriously injured! What does it matter if they called you names? You can brush it off, can't you?! It's still _nothing_ compared to what you did to them!"

Brick's head pulsed with anger. _Nothing?_ Yeah! Of course it was nothing, right? He couldn't possibly admit to her that what happened before influenced him. He was fine! He was absolutely…

 _No..._ The red ruff knew. The red ruff knew deep down that wasn't true. And he couldn't just stand there and let that stupid puff tell him off.

The leader ruff turned to her furiously. "Nothing?! Well maybe for you it's _NOTHING!"_ He roared in exasperation, taking Blossom by surprise. "News flash, pink-eye! Your _innocent_ citizens, are not really that innocent! But then again, how would you know what it's like, huh? You're their _precious_ hero, and every one of those lame wimps _adore_ you!" He spat in a mocking tone. "Nobody ever blames you for anything because you're all so goody-goody, and all ' _I'm going to save the day because I'm so much perfect and better than you all!'_ But guess what? You aren't! You're just a pathetic sissy trying to kiss up to everybody no matter what they do!"

Brick seethed and shot looks of sharp daggers to his counterpart. Blossom, taking in his long rant, just stared at Brick with incredulity. _Wait, what?!_

Besides the fact that he insulted her, she couldn't believe what she just heard. Could it be that he was... actually _hurt_ by this incident? Blossom stopped herself from snorting out loud. This was ridiculous! A ruthless Rowdyruff actually making what happened to him a big deal!

Blossom speculatively searched his eyes to see if he was making some kind of joke. But to her shock, when she managed to see past his rage, she discovered the seriousness and hurt stricken in two wavering eyes. The pink girl bit her lip. _Was it_ a big deal to him? Did things really happen like he said? It did answer why the attack earlier at the park seemed impetuous and unplanned, but that was just her presumption. Did the citizens really gang up and publicly shame him? ...so harshly that it made him capable of feeling... hurt?

She stared at the boy in front of her waiting for her response. No matter how hard the situation was to believe, she had to make something clear to him.

"I DO NOT think that I'm better than anybody." She asserted.

Brick scoffed. "Yeah, right."

"I don't!" Blossom immediately hissed, taking him aback. "Never in my life did I EVER think I was more superior! Yes, I might have an advantage in my powers, but that doesn't make me 'better' or 'superior' than normal people, it just makes me 'different' and 'special'! And helping people is what makes my powers so special, not stomping over others and calling them 'wimps'!" Blossom marched closer to Brick and pointed to his chest. "If you don't want people to attack and treat you with hatred, how about you start working on how you treat them first?!"

"Hah, what?! Treat those losers nicely? You gotta be kidding me!" Brick snorted as he whacked her hand away.

"Suit yourself." Blossom responded, crossing her arms. "If you want to live your life sad and alone."

Brick twitched from her offensive remark. "You should know, that I _want_ to be alone! I ran away from home!" He shouted bluntly.

Blossom blinked from his unexpected frank remark, and to be fair, Brick was a bit embarrassed after seeing her reaction. _So that's why he's out here_ , she thought in realization.

"What about it? I don't need family like you lamos. It's what I wanted for a long time!" Brick added quickly, trying to make it seem less personal.

The two stood still in their place silently, staring at each other. Yes, Blossom had found out why Brick had separated from his brothers, but she didn't know what to think of it. Tired from this silly tension, she looked away to survey the area of Brick's new territory.

"Well? Are you like, gonna 'arrest' me now?" Brick broke the silence. "Because you're stupid to think I'll go down easily."

"Are you planning to go back anytime soon?" Blossom ignored his comment and asked.

"No. And you're not gonna make me go anywhere either." The red ruff said sharply. "So if you're done poking your nose where it doesn't belong, you better leave because no one invited you to this party."

Blossom was just finished with her surveillance of the area. It was a decent choice for a runaway place, he was in luck. She looked back at his red foe. Brick seemed pretty stubborn about his stay. Something drove him to run away, which means he was definitely affected by the raid from the citizens. Or, there was something else she didn't know going on.

"Didn't you hear me?! Buzz off!" Brick yelled impatiently to the wordless puff.

Blossom huffed and closed her eyes. "Fine." She turned on her heels and faced the other direction. Whatever it was, he sure wasn't going to tell her.

With the unusual confront with him, the red-bowed Powerpuff had lost her determination to fight. And frankly, the pink puff didn't know what to do from here. She had initially searched for Brick's whereabouts to beat him up and make him receive the punishment he deserved. But now, with an uncomfortable truth unveiled and with Brick showing signs of emotions that she has never even seen in him before, she wasn't sure if that was really the right answer. Looking at him somehow reminded her of a certain memory in the past... A woeful memory before she and her sisters became heroes. The pink girl sighed and decided to retreat for now.

"By the way, Brick." Blossom paused before her departure. Brick gave her a 'what now' look. "You're wrong. People didn't always like me." She said, turning her head slightly and looking meaningfully at the red boy with no longer anger-ridden eyes. "I was just as upset as you were."

With that, she soared up the sky, leaving a pink trail of her own. The red Rowdyruff was left to himself as he wordlessly stared at the Powerpuff disappear into the clouds.


	6. Crazy Girl and Silly Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "SO WHAT IF I'M BEING PUSHED AROUND?!"
> 
> It was then when Boomer's abrupt rage-filled spasm harshly derailed her from her thoughts. The feverish blond boy balled up his fists and glared straight at her with resentment, prepared to charge at her any second.
> 
> But contrary to the demeanor he just displayed, he soon loosened his posture and lowered his head down defeatedly in shame.
> 
> "Go ahead! Call me a loser and laugh at me if that's what you want!" He pointed to his chest and then turned his back on the puff resignedly. "It's not like that's anything new to me anyway…!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More updates imported from FF.net! :)
> 
> P.S.: For this chapter, referring to Episode "Bubble Boy" and "Beat Your Greens" would be helpful!

It certainly was a turbulent day back at the main streets of Townsville, as thick concentrated dark-green bolts of energy thrashed onto the asphalt of a road. A green Rowdyruff was zigzagging above the avenues with both hands harnessing balls of energy, aimed tenaciously at his prey. With no doubt, facing the barrage was a light green heroine, who swiftly dodged the attacks of her assailant, causing the energy bolts to damage streets and blow up fire hydrants instead. Before long, jets of water spewed forth from underground pipelines and broken hydrants, cloaking the road entirely with sprays of artificial geysers.

Butch, while becoming drenched by the shower of water, narrowed his eyes from the impaired vision and took random shots below him. But in the midst of his attack, a giant moving truck was tossed from behind the fogs of water and slammed into him dead on, credits to his counterpart. Butch was consequently hurled along the back of the truck and crashed into the windows of a glass building.

The green boy, in the end, landed fully inside the floor of an office while the moving truck only half-entered through the window. And as if the first impact wasn't enough, the back openings of the truck released, sending boxes of packed materials toppling down on him. The employees in the office gazed at the happening for a while, but scurried away in a frenzy as the green ruff rose viciously from the packages. At the same time, the moving truck that had lost its balance from the unleashed boxes plummeted to the ground and revealed his enemy floating outside the shattered window. Butch at last, didn't miss his chance to finally hit his target successfully with his energy ray, and thus the electrified girl feebly plunged to the ground on top of the fore fallen truck. The dazed Powerpuff shook her dizzy head and looked up to find her counterpart.

"Had enough girly?!" Butch sneered, cracking his knuckles.

"Far from it, dirt-face!" Buttercup countered, and used the crushed truck as a jump pad to skyrocket after him.

Her spike-haired opponent generated a force field just in time, yet was knocked back from the clash. Nonetheless, using the remaining momentum, he safely docked on a nearby rooftop of one of the low buildings. The fortunate boy was about to project a haughty grin towards his foe, but it waned when his eyes came in contact with hers filled with abnormal malice and contempt. He rapidly darted out of the way as Buttercup zapped lasers with her eyes massive enough to obliterate the whole of the roof.

Butch dropped his jaw. "Whoa, what's got into you? A little touchy today, aren't we?"

"You got a problem with that?!" Buttercup barked, lessening the gap between them again.

Butch avoided to the side, got a hold of her arm, and wrung it behind her back. The green puff winced in pain.

"Nope, glad to see you're finally putting up a fight." He smirked cunningly.

Seeing her vulnerable in his hold, the Rowdyruff forcefully spun her around by the gripped arm and sent her sailing into a billboard. Buttercup ended up penetrating it and landed on the other side.

"But seriously," he shrugged his shoulders casually, "what's the deal? Ants in your pants?"

While Butch celebrated on his ingenious remark, Buttercup sprung up from her fall and blasted the billboard in her way. With her visual obstacle gone, she aggressively dusted herself and revealed her true purpose of battling him.

"You hurt my people and friends, so I _POUND_ you! It's as simple as that!"

She crouched down and took off to promptly carry out her goal. Her antagonist was ready for her as they squared off into a full-scale brawl.

ㅡ

Strangely, it seemed to be quite a wet day for everybody. For on the other side of the streets where the blues battled, Boomer stepped out of a water tank completely soaked from a leakage, thanks to the blow from his opponent.

"How's the shower?" Bubbles giggled teasingly. "Has it got you to your senses?"

"No!" Boomer retorted, then scratched his head from uncertainty. "I mean… yes! But not in the way you want me!"

Looking for his next move, the blue boy suddenly got an idea and detached the rest of the giant water vessel over his head. He held it high above the sky and hurled it towards the pig-tailed girl. Bubbles, in panic, attempted to catch it in her arms but was flung back with it. She and the water tank crashed into a nearby masonry, and gradually, the enormous tank slipped from her loose hands and tumbled down to the streets. People below screamed and sought safety as they fled desperately from the rolling vessel and the gushes of water that flooded the roads. Heeding their cries, the blond girl gasped and dived down to rescue distressed civilians and the cute talking dog that was casually strolling by. She gently let them down onto high land and glared back at her enemy.

"Hah! You can't even catch!" Boomer made fun of her ineptness from afar. "That's what you get for messing with my food, you wimp!"

Bubbles straightened herself up and threw him a ferocious scowl from where she was standing. "I'm not a wimp! You're just a mean _bully!"_

Boomer's expression instantly stiffened into a frown as Bubbles' recrimination left her tongue. Somehow the word 'bully' didn't really please him.

" _I'm the bully?!_ You're the one who took away my burgers!" He yelled, directing a blaming hand at his counterpart. "Thanks to you, now I have to steal them all over again!"

The blond accuser threw his hands up violently in the air, all tensed up thinking of the rampage he'll receive from Butch.

Bubbles was watching his stressed behavior closely, ingesting his words, when she cocked one of her eyebrows higher than the other, realizing something that she had completely dismissed before. _Could it be...?_ She agilely evaded an incoming frontal attack from Boomer, and wheeled around, letting her eyes chase up Boomer who zoomed past his intended striking zone.

"Wait a minute," she gathered, "I knew there was something going on! Why were you getting the burgers _alone?"_ She eyed her counterpart with strong suspicion, drifting closer to him steadily.

"Huh..?" Boomer, who was just about to initiate another attack, was a bit freaked out, and backed away from her incomprehensible interrogation.

Though her approach had little speed, the Rowdyruff could sense her drawing closer by the second, her dogged heavy-weighted gaze fixed on him the whole time. Whatever she was up to, he didn't have a good feeling about it. It was as if she knew something. As if she could _see through_ him!

"Duh! Because I was hungry! What's wrong with getting a burger for myself?" Standing up to her forwardness, the ruff blurted the first most obvious excuse that came to mind, circumventing away from the real reason.

Because no way was he going to tell her the truth! He wasn't stupid! He could fully imagine the backlash when she catches on that his bossy brother ordered him to do so. If that were to happen, even this lame Powerpuff would think he was a total _loser!_ And that's the last thing he wanted to hear when it was already enough with Brick and Butch dumping on him for that.

In the middle of his anxiety, said 'lame Powerpuff' stopped a short distance away from him, eventually ceasing the ruff from his retraction. Now the two super-beings faced each other crossly at the same level aloft ground, locking eye-to-eye without straying. With neither side yielding to the other, Bubbles narrowed her eyes and knowingly disrupted the tension.

"Your brothers bullied you into it, _didn't they?"_ She asserted flatly.

Her blunt tongue struck a chord inside the boy as it caused a nervous panick attack in his stomach.

"N-no they didn't!" The startled ruff stammered at the exposed truth, but of course, Bubbles instantly caught his fluster and wasn't about to let it slide.

"Yes they did!" She persisted, "It's just like what happened with the candy last time!"

"What candy?!"

"The candy last time that your brothers made you steal!" **(A/N: Episode** _ **Bubble Boy**_ **.)**

Boomer searched his memory. "Oh _that_ candy. The candy that _I_ stole for myself?" He lied.

"As if! Admit it Boomer, I dressed up like you once. I know exactly how they treat you!"

"Peh! That's how they treated _you!_ I'm no pushover!"

" _No._ They treated me like that because they thought I was _you!_ You're just too afraid to say it!"

"Nuh-uh! I'm not afraid to say that I'm…! ?!...No I mean, I...!"

Bubbles' last counterargument finally clogged Boomer up of his objections. The blue ruff, dumbstruck and offended, hung his mouth agape as he realized there was no way out of this. He had been told off yet again in his life—but this time, not by his brothers, _but a dumb puff!_ He snarled and put his teeth together. Why was she so darn insistent in hearing the truth? What on earth did she want?!

While the boy constricted in anger, his mirroring counterpart rested in the air with a bitter frown on her face. But in time, she softened a bit with a hint of sympathy, remembering why she was badgering him like this in the first place.

Why she kept mentioning a specific past event was simple. Through her disguise as Boomer that time, the Powerpuff was able to put herself in his shoes for once. And secretly, all through the mission she couldn't help but feel bad for her male counterpart. The way his brothers knocked him back and forth, and how they would pester him to do errands for them—but most of all, how little they cared about him to even notice that it was her in disguise! In her case, she sucked it up and stood up to them, but she could never imagine her sisters treating her like that. Poor Boomer on the other hand, was putting up with the ordeal all the time...

"SO _WHAT IF_ I'M BEING PUSHED AROUND?!"

It was then when Boomer's abrupt rage-filled spasm harshly derailed her from her thoughts. The feverish blond boy balled up his fists and glared straight at her with resentment, prepared to charge at her any second.

But contrary to the demeanor he just displayed, he soon loosened his posture and lowered his head down defeatedly in shame.

"Go ahead! Call me a loser and laugh at me if that's what you want!" He pointed to his chest and then turned his back on the puff resignedly. "It's not like that's anything new to me anyway…!"

"...!"

His light blue counterpart, greatly surprised by his unexpected morose behavior, stared at his defenseless back but posed no verbal attack. Rather, she felt a pang of regret.

All she was trying to do was pressure him just enough to admit how his brothers treated him, so that she could… though it was a crazy thought, maybe give him some advice on how she handled the two tykes.

She knew of course that he was her enemy. As a matter of fact, she had actually decided on ignoring his discontent the few times she noticed it before. But seeing it happen again, despite her effort to hold back, it had compelled her to take action. She had experienced his place for a while, and she knew how unfair it felt.

Now in actuality however, she realized the error in her coarse approach that concerned a sensitive topic for him. Surely he would be afraid that others would make fun of him; that's what he always received from his brothers. His discouraged back gave her more the reason to make this right…

"No Boomer," she began as to redeem herself. "I'm not going to make fun of you. You're not a loser at all." The Powerpuff assured softly.

Boomer, with his eyes fastened shut, had pursed his lips in preparation for her taunting, but popped his eyes wide open as she let out a phrase he'd never expected to hear in his life.

"Wha..?" A sound of disbelief escaped from his mouth as he steered back at the puff.

Instead of repeating herself, the puff nodded him a sincere smile that spoke for itself.

ㅡ

Butch and Buttercup were still in the middle of trading blows, both equal in competence. They continued to punch, kick, gnaw at each other until they both shot their eye laser that cancelled in the middle and hauled them apart.

Buttercup exploded right back into action while Butch just watched her near and extended his hands out to stop her by the head. He knee-kicked her right in the stomach, but Buttercup made a sharp comeback by smacking him across the face. The two again duke it out restlessly.

"Look who's mad." Butch taunted the puff between his punches, then puckered his lips to make a babyish sound. "Are you angwy that we destwoyed your fwiends _wittle Powderpuff?"_

"Shuddup! Mitch didn't deserve it from you, you jerk!" The raven haired girl swatted the boy's head and sent him crashing down on the pavement. Butch shook himself up and blasted Buttercup away right before she reached him. Buttercup settled down on the ground some yards away.

"Who the heck is Mitch? Your _boy-friend?"_ The green ruff laughed derisively, standing up from his crater.

"He's my _friend_ , you moron!" Buttercup spat in a vindictive tone. "Which you obviously don't have because you dorks are so stuck-up and full of baloney!"

"Hah, who needs friends!" Butch scoffed, unaffected by her speech.

He did, however, still somewhat wonder who this Mitch person was to have driven her to foam in the mouth. He vaguely recalled the memory earlier at the park, but the only face that gave him an impression to remember was the freckled boy who had foolishly challenged him.

"Is it that dopey freckled kid with brown hair?" He guessed with marginal care in his voice. Buttercup's scowl deepened as she absorbed his description of Mitch.

"So it _was_ _you_." She gnashed her teeth in fury. " _You_ hurt him."

Butch's eyes now perked up in high interest knowing his assumption was correct.

"Actually, it was Brick." The green ruff showed his palms, admitting the glory to be his brother's. "But, it was _me_ who gave that sick bruise on that sucker's eye." The triumphant boy confessed his deed as he cackled cockily, provoking the puff on purpose.

In a flash, an unendurable amount of red smoke built up inside Buttercup before she went ballistic and double-smashed the ground in retaliation. Earth-shattering enormous shockwaves hurtled towards her enemy as a result. Butch smirked at the predictable attack and took off from the ground before the waves touched him, but he was too full of himself to notice that the green puff had approached close in his range. Catching him off guard with the waves, she had uprooted a street light and had sailed towards him, ready for a full fledged swing. She clubbed her opponent with the bludgeon, hitting one of his eyes _hard_ , and leaving a bruise.

"That's for Mitch!" She hollered and dropped her makeshift club.

Butch at the moment, was being thrown away from the former impact, but Buttercup easily surpassed him and pummeled him relentlessly to the ground. The sufferer of attack was practically drilled into the road, until Buttercup stopped her pounding and yanked him up by the collar.

"Where's your red crook of a brother?!" The green puff yelled into his face.

Butch snapped out of his grogginess and spat blood onto her cheek that gathered from his bleeding teeth. "Don't know, and _don't care!"_

Buttercup, agitated, smashed his head to the ground. "Liar!" She roared, sending another consecutive bout of thrashes one after the other. "Of course even a lowlife like you cares about your brother! WHERE IS HE?!"

"I care about NOBODY!" Butch screeched in defiance and kicked his aggressor off of him.

Buttercup staggered backward into place and glared at him fiercely through squinted eyes. "Well _I_ do." She stated rigidly. "And if you EVER try to hurt anyone around me again, then this will not be the end of it! You hear?!"

Grinding her teeth, she smashed her fist into her palm as a last threat, then catapulted into the air without sending any additional attacks. As soon as she cleared out of sight, Butch drew out of the rubble with furrowed eyebrows and wiped the remaining blood left on the edge of his jaw line.

"Geez, that girl's crazy!" He muttered.

ㅡ

It was no surprise that it took some time for Boomer to grasp the situation at hand. If she didn't pester him to make fun of him, then _why?_

He squinted his eyes dubiously at the puff. "What girly trick are you trying to pull on me?"

The pig-tailed cutie shrugged innocently. "Nothing." She said with integrity. "It's just that, I know nobody likes to be treated in a mean way, no matter who it is. And it doesn't matter whether it's the people in Townsville, or even you, a Rowdyruff."

She swayed her foot back and forth while she kept her hands clasped behind her back, standing by for a response. The blond Rowdyruff in the meanwhile, mulled on the words she had spoken. _Nobody likes to be treated in a mean way…?_ Yeah, _he_ sure didn't. She was right about that. So what about the people at the park? And the people at the burger place? …Even _Brick?_

Boomer's head was piling up with awareness. But wait, he halted uneasily, this was a dumb girl talking!

The ruff glimpsed back at his opponent that had caused the fuss inside his head. He squirmed while he chose his next words carefully as to not become reeled into her scheme. Whatever it was.

"Okay, let's say for some crazy reason, that you are… _right_." Boomer slightly grouched at the last word. "So what? What if I don't want to be treated meanly? What do you expect me to do? _Cry_ like a girl?"

Bubbles crooked an eyebrow at his sexist offense, and returned an insult of her own.

"No, you _doo-doo-brain_. What you do is stand up for yourself." She stated matter-of-factly, ignoring Boomer's unimpressed eyes. The blue puff's previous stern look returned as she straightened her posture to look more assertive.

"Don't you see? You have to do it, or else they will keep on being mean to you. Don't just stand there and let them eat you away! If they punch you, you punch back. If they tease you, you do the same. If they tell you to eat a cockroach, then you crunch it into pieces!" The blue puff gnawed her teeth in demonstration and posed confidently in front of his foe.

"..Yeah…" Boomer agreed in a trance. He was honestly fascinated by the blue girl's bold advice. "I heard you chomped it in one bite. That was pretty coo-" The ruff stopped dead in his sentence as he stirred out of his stupor. He knitted his face. What was he doing, about to call a _girl_ cool!?

"I mean bleh! Disgusting!" He averted in denial. Bubbles rolled her eyes at his lack of cooperation.

"Look, it's not that bad once you try it." She said, searching her head for an analogy. "It's like… uh… broccoli." She presented as an example, remembering another past incident. "You eat them and realize that they aren't so bad."

"Broccoli?" Boomer recalled the vegetable inside the fridge. "But Butch said that ain't food."

 _Aha!_ Bubbles brightened and smiled somewhat smugly as she figured out how to psych him.

"Yeah but that's what Butch said." She sneered, poking at his ego. "Are you going to listen to every single thing your brother says the rest of your life?"

"No way!"

Boomer scoffed and shook his head vigorously. Fortunately Bubbles seemed to have convinced him on that side of the story. But the ruff still appeared doubtful of her claim about broccoli.

So, although they were sidetracking to a weird direction, in order to prove her point Bubbles decided to briefly recite the time when broccoli aliens invaded Townsville, and how the girls and several normal kids all got together as a team to save their parents and planet earth from alien infiltration. **(A/N: Episode** _ **Beat Your Greens**_ **.)** During the whole time, Boomer was so enthralled by Bubbles' narrative that he for a while forgot about his animosity towards her.

"…So lesson learned, the only way to get rid of them was to eat them. They looked nasty, but boy did they taste good." Bubbles finished up her tale, rubbing her tummy.

"Whoa…" Boomer remarked, astonished (literally and figuratively) by the guts of the girls and Townsville kids. "Why have I never heard of this?"

Bubbles ran through the timeline in her head. "Because, it was when you hadn't come back from the dead yet." She concluded, which surprisingly, caused Boomer's face to droop a bit in disappointment.

All through his short life, he was always either busting things under HIM's lair, or following what his brothers wanted to do for fun. Never did he know that there were other exciting things in life other than what he experienced.

Bubbles up front, had caught the disappointment in Boomer, and felt a little dejected as well. As much as she felt a bit anxious from growing a bit comfortable with her enemy, she wanted to cheer him up now that she was seeing some of his soft side. Maybe he wasn't all bad.

"Hey," she called, catching his attention. "Don't be sad. You'll have lots of fun adventures coming forth. And uh… whenever we're not beating each other up and stuff, I'll tell you more of these stories, okay?"

Boomer's face seemed to lighten up in relief just until he promptly put on a scowl as another cover-up.

"Listen to more of those lame stories from you?! In your dreams!" He opposed, but Bubbles wasn't fooled.

"Okay," she smiled meaningfully. "I'm just letting you know."

Before Boomer could add anything to her suggestion, the sound of one-sided merciless beating resonated in the foreground, causing the blue super humans to glance back at the battle field of their green siblings. Buttercup was beating Butch brutally into the asphalt with flaming eyes, and the intensity of her wrath instantly sent chills down the blue bystanders. In mutual silence, they found themselves taking cover from the greens' range of view.

"Wow.. he's getting owned!" Boomer peeked in awe as he cringed a little at the scene.

"Yeah…" Bubbles mumbled from behind. She peeped at Buttercup with concern, hoping her anger won't get the better of her. She then glimpsed cautiously over at Boomer.

"Um… don't you have to go help him?" She inquired. But Boomer shook his head.

"Nah, he deserves it. So much for acting all tough and bossy!" He chuckled.

Bubbles wasn't really compelled by his reasoning but decided it best to stay out and watch over the situation as well. Not because she agreed to what Boomer said, but because she didn't want her sister to question why she wasn't smashing her counterpart into oblivion. She swallowed from the thought. That was going to need a huge explanation.

Back at the greens, offensive remarks were exchanged back and forth between the two warriors, until finally Buttercup gained altitude up the sky and left Butch lying in his crater.

Boomer got out of his cover and snickered at the punishment Butch received. "I'm totally gonna call him out on that for the rest of his life!" He hooted, descending toward his brother.

Just when he could've fooled her into leaving, he glanced back over his shoulder to shout, "You're still a sissy!" towards Bubbles, which was his way of saying goodbye.

The pig-tailed Powerpuff wrinkled her nose and murmured, "Silly boy…" with a small smile before she decided to catch up to her green sister.

ㅡ

"Buttercup wait!"

The green puff who captured her sister's voice with adept hearing slammed her breaks in mid-air.

"Yeah? What up Bubbles? Did you find any of them?" She asked, gliding towards her.

"Uh.. yeah, I…"

Bubbles' reply trailed off as the two Powerpuffs heard nearing momentum and noticed their leader closing from a distance.

"Look who's back." Buttercup grumbled. "Where's your _twin_ , Blossom?!" The green puff called out, her previous question now directed brusquely at the redhead. "I have to give that swine a hiney-whoopin'! Unless you still have more of your smart objections!"

Blossom, who spotted the two girls, dropped her speed and hovered unnervingly until she reached a stop close to her teammates. She chewed her bottom lip as she hadn't exactly thought through this confrontation yet. And surely, her mental agony was understandable, because, just how was she going to persuade them about the _change_ in Brick? And the _change_ in how she thought matters should be dealt with?

Nervously, she looked at her siblings one from the other, then opened her mouth to appease her green sister as well as divert them both from manhandling Brick.

...But no bright ideas came to her head other than resorting to lying.

"Well?!" Her green sister, unaware of her dilemma, trapped her further with shortening patience.

However, what greeted Buttercup was something else. Saving the pink leader from the trouble, a beastly howl shook the three heroines from the opposing direction. What was caught in the three trio's vision was a gargantuan monster shadowing the town buildings while it trampled vehicles and architectures along its way.

Blossom wiped away her sweat in small relief. "Now's not the time girls," she evaded, "looks like we have something else coming our way." She turned to Buttercup. "Let's just try to forget about our fight for now and deal with that abomination first. Call it truce?"

Buttercup crooked an eyebrow at her lucky escape, but grunted unwillingly. "Yeah, for now.."

Undoubtedly, the three girls had their minds lingering elsewhere, but to no degree could they ignore the imminent evil lurking on the horizon. Hence, without further setback, the three warriors flashed into the battle field, engaging in their next prolonging combat.


	7. A Tale of Two Dinners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All three of them were now almost finished with their dinner, but Mojo seemed to have more to say. It was a lingering uncomfortable question that all had evaded touching upon.
> 
> "Were there possibly, if not then so be it, any signs of Brick?"
> 
> It didn't take a second for the spike-haired boy to answer, "Nope, didn't bother lookin for him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter especially digs deeper into the consciousness of Boomer and Butch and their changing of thought process. So I hope you would enjoy it nonetheless as part of the main story. Thank you!

Butch and Boomer watched with stunned expressions as Mojo whipped out an Asian style grill before their tables and situated to flaunt his impressive cooking skills. Dinner time was drawing near already, and after Mojo had finally woken up from his coma, he had hastened to the grocery store knowing all too well of his refrigerator's condition. He had been slightly disappointed, however, when his two boys refused to come with him for some reason.

Well enough, before leaving for the store, he had noticed large empty pizza boxes that were lying sloppily on the floor which he surmised had been their lunch. Perhaps they were not too happy with him leaving them with literally nothing to do nor anything to eat. And after a good rest, it dawned on him how unprepared he was for his little boys and how entirely negligent he was as a parent. With an odd hint of guilt crawling up on the villainous monkey, he had returned with his hands full of grocery bags. Oddly that day, he had received frequent death glares by customers while he was at the store, but that was not the matter.

He was determined to become a better father.

And now, standing in front of the pre-heated grill, with spatulas in each paw, and an apron fastened around him, he perked up a confident grin towards his sons before twirling the cooking tools dramatically, only to lay them down in front of him. He then juggled a bottle of cooking oil and squirted the liquid on the grill thoroughly, all the while with his other hand zipping out a raw chicken by its leg and handling it off the side. The master chef put down the cooking oil with a gruff "huy!" and drew out a knife to immaculately chop the chicken into pieces, coat it with seasoning, and flip it around with the two spatulas that were laid down before.

The marvelous sizzling of the chicken against the grill automatically caused the two eager waiting rascals to take a sniff of the air and lick their lips. Butch in particular, hung out his tongue and started panting like crazy, just when the chimp also began slicing a head of broccoli which made his face drop. Nonetheless, he hooted with his brother as Mojo afterwards slid the green vegetables off to the side in order to spray the chicken with cooking oil and immediately light it up with fire.

A massive ray of red and orange fire shot upwards and died down slowly, wooing the boys with a performance they have never laid eyes upon. With the end of the show nearing, the green chef gathered the chopped broccoli, grilled it, and slung the now ready pieces of chicken and vegetables on everybody's respective plates. As a last touch, he stropped the spatulas in his hands against each other and put them down once again, with a matching "huy!" to follow.

"And that's for you, for referring to cooking as an activity for the 'sissified.'" Mojo smiled smugly at his green son and wagged a finger in front of him.

Boomer applauded and clapped his hands, while Butch groaned at him mentioning his initial doubt right before the cooking.

"Alright fine," the Rowdyruff conceded. "Let's just siddown and eat already, I'm starving!"

Mojo did as his son pleased, as he took off his apron and grabbed a seat next to his two boys who had already dug into the food.

"Man!" Boomer exclaimed as he gnawed on a chicken leg. "This stuff is wicked!"

Hearing the compliment, the chef smiled almost up to his ears in delight as he wiggled his eyebrows. "Of course it is! I—master chef Mojo Jojo—am not only number one 'villain' of Townsville," he rose from his seat and posed pompously, "but also number one CHEF of Townsville! Muhahahahaha!"

Mojo chuckled out loud as he expected some sort of support. But once he looked back at his children, he found them all too busy with their plate. He frowned and attempted once again for appreciation, "unlike that ever so incompetent crayfish who calls himself a father!"

"Totally!" Boomer chirped, barely prying himself away at the remains on a chicken bone. "You're _much_ cooler!"

Butch eyed his brother with dread and quickly looked around their surroundings. That idiot! What if HE was listening?!

Meanwhile, Mojo had beamed satisfiedly at Boomer's answer and sat back on his seat. He himself dug into some of his delicious cooking until he opened his mouth again.

"So," he prompted, "Anything of enjoyment happen, my boys? Amongst my sleep I couldn't help but overhear a commotion."

Pointing with the corner of his eye, Mojo alluded to the destroyed telescope, and then to an obvious hole on the observatory wall that was made when Butch was grappled into a fight with his counterpart. The collision had briefly woken the monkey up in his bedroom earlier, wrapping him with apprehension; but with his tiredness getting the better of him, he had drifted back to sleep hoping to deal with it later. But to the chimp's surprise when he woke up, the boys had actually managed to keep themselves from completely crumbling his place to pieces without his supervision.

But of course, there was no way the two tykes would have restrained themselves from evil activities, now would they?—surely they must have taken it outside.

Hoping to make up for the irresponsibility he portrayed earlier, the proud monkey parent was eager to hear all about what menacing acts they had taken upon that day. He put down his eating utensils and intertwined his fingers under his chin, viewing them with open ears.

Seeing his father's overzealous face of expectancy, Butch who had stayed quiet for a while looked up from his food and muttered, "Not really," and cut the conversation short.

Boomer on the other hand, seemed to have more to offer.

"We sure did! Dude, Mojo, we fought the Powderpuffs and Butch here…yow!" Boomer suddenly yelped as he felt Butch nudge him under the table with his fork, hissing silently to say no more than they had agreed to. The blond boy thought through then stammered a bit too awkwardly to finish his sentence. "Y-yeah, the Powderpuffs. We sure gave it to them!"

Pushing Mojo's confused face in view aside, Boomer munched on yet another chicken as he traced back on the not-so-belligerent events that had happened to him. He mulled on the unexpected conversation with his blue counterpart, which had surprisingly been pretty _okay_ in the end.

_?_

… _NO! What was he saying…!_

One thing was for sure, though. It was the first time he had ever admitted a part of his hidden… um.. _feelings_ to someone else.

Honestly for the blue boy, after all this time just messing around with his brothers, he was never given the chance to have a genuine talk with anybody. Nor did he feel the need to. The bad treatment and constant battering from his brothers, most of the times he thought he had to endure it—no matter how unfair it felt—and that he really was the problem for not being tough enough. Often times HIM was far worse than his brothers, admonishing him for being unable to "keep up" with them.

Boomer in reflex, cringed at the thought. Yes, he could be slow at times… Okay, maybe _a lot_ of times. But there was no need for anyone to be a stupid jerk about it. Thinking about it made him inwardly pout.

But that blue puff… she was different, though.

Reverting his flashback to where it originally was, the blond ruff thought of the blue pig-tailed Powerpuff. Frankly, he still had all these complicated thoughts going on; and one of them was 'W _hat in the world was he doing, keep thinking of a stupid Powderpuff?'_

He never usually bothered with any deep thinking. It hurt his brain. But although he didn't _get_ a lot of things in life, she was the most he couldn't _get_ at all. Like, did she really mean it when she said she would tell him more of her stories? Why? Why was she suddenly being all _nice_ and— _icky_ again?

It didn't feel bad. Maybe it was because now he became—what was it? 'immune' to the cooties the girlies had.

Well whatever was going on, the blue puff was the first person who was willing to listen, he recalled. And when he refused to talk, she herself took initiative and opened up to him, which befuddled him to no end. The tone of her voice actually sounded like she meant it.

This was the part that wracked his brain.

Boomer had always thought that kind of act she performed was a sign of _wimpiness_ , or was at least told so by HIM, that letting others know what you are thinking and feeling was giving them a chance to crush you. That it was something idiotic that only _crybabies_ would do.

He blinked. He still hadn't fully let go of that thought; it was a bit unsettling to know that the Powerpuff had caught on to his weak point. Nonetheless, despite vigorously denying it, he had enjoyed her kindness in return. How she didn't give up and went on ahead to convince him to be strong—Come on, _that dummy_ , didn't she know she was helping a villain? A _big_ _bad, strong…_ uh _.. bad_ boy like him?

The edge of Boomer's lip curled up as he mused over what had happened after her advice.

" _Where da heck are the burgers?!" Butch demanded, his eyes reflecting impatience from the built up anger he gathered from the preceding battle. Boomer who was descending the sky, was about ready to taunt his brother for being showed up by a girl, but as soon as he took in the vision of his nearing brother, he lowered his tail and backed off._

" _I, uh, I don't have them!" Boomer mustered a response, a little poorly than he attempted._

" _Well, then where are they?!" The green ruff narrowed his eyes, his tone even more annoyed. Boomer licked his lips and fiddled with his hands as he built up the courage for his next comeback._

" _You see.._ _I was gonna, but then those stupid people there threw stuff and yelled at me and then the stupid Powderpuff arrived and…"_

_Not even waiting for him to finish, Butch viciously shoved and cornered his brother to a wall in an alley. Boomer just in time extended his arms behind and prevented himself from colliding too harshly with the masonry. But what was more disturbing to him than the slight ring in his head from the impact, was two glowing green eyes in front of him fixated to tear him down._

" _You let… a bunch of looney townspeople and a POWERPUFF show you up?"_

_The source of the green orbs growled in a low voice and soon gnashed his teeth together as he noticed his brother hesitating to prove him wrong. He knew it! He knew the doofus couldn't do anything right! Once again, he failed in doing yet another simple job!_

" _WHAT KIND OF AN IDIOT ARE YOU?!"_

_Finding a perfect target to vent on, Butch got all up into his brother's face and continued his diatribe, while Boomer shrunk noticeably with the green ruff towering over him. The helpless boy squeezed his eyes closed and recoiled further. All this was too familiar. Why did this always have to happen to him..?_

'… _What you do is stand up for yourself…'_

_At that moment, Boomer was surprised to hear his counterpart's voice in his head. What the..?_

' _..Don't just stand there and let them eat you away!'_

_Her stern voice again resonated clearly between his ears. Her assertive, but gentle expression from before imprinted its image vividly in his mind. And slowly, that was all what was worth for Boomer to fight back from his position._

" _Well then what about you?!"_

_Swiftly, Boomer jumped up in his green brother's face and caused him to fall to the ground. Butch dumbfounded, nonetheless slowly raised himself from the ground._

" _What about me?!" He shot back._

" _What were YOU doing, huh?! While I was getting the stinkin' food you were totally getting pulverized by the green one!"_

_Boomer watched as he caught a slight glimpse of Butch's horrified expression before he adjusted to a nonchalant smirk._

" _Says who?! You have no proof!" Butch bluffed as he held up his arms mid way to the side. Boomer, however, was already ready for this. He cocked one of his eyebrows and pointed out the one blatant evidence that the green ruff had no way of escaping._

" _Well then, where'd ya get the bruise from?" The side of his mouth twisted up to an amused scoff._

_Butch was taken aback. "What bruise?!"_

" _Your eye. What, did you hit yourself?"_

_Derisive sarcasm slipped from Boomer's tongue while Butch gasped and approached to a puddle made from yet sprouting water from fire hydrants. His shoulders dropped. It was undeniable. He brought his hand close up to the purple swelling wound that was planted evidently on his face. The spiked boy then recalled the moment his counterpart swung her steel weapon at him. Why that little…._

" _How much did you see?" He unwillingly asked in a grave voice._

" _Every. Single. Moment." Boomer beamed. "Priceless."_

 _With the advantage now on his side, Boomer sauntered over to Butch and put his hand on his shoulder almost comfortingly, as the green boy stared off to the puddle, speechless_ _._

" _So you see, you were the one who did 'nothing' this time. You were the one who was being 'useless'." He cheerfully sang into his sibling's ear, expressing the grudge he had on him through emphasized short syllables. He seemed to be enjoying himself as he continued, "So YOU get the food and YOU do what I say or else I'LL TELL EVERYONE HOW MUCH OF A LOSER YOU ARE."_

_That moment, Butch pulled himself off of Boomer. And Boomer, startled by his action, almost winced and lost control of his upperhand. But thankfully that didn't happen as Butch finally relented with a "fine," then he turned to look at Boomer._

" _But you better not tell anybody. Especially Brick if ya see him." He warned, crossing his arms._

_Boomer in turn, nodded with a smirk, inwardly hooting in triumph._

The blond boy smiled, remembering that awesome feeling of confidence that came from standing up for himself. He'd done it.

Well actually, fine, he had to admit it was the Powerpuff who had encouraged him to do so. He shrugged his shoulders. A Powerpuff can actually be of help—who would have known?

He looked at his plate for a moment. And then, instead of grabbing another piece of chicken yet again with his greasy hands, he stabbed into a broccoli head with his fork. The blond boy stared at the piece of vegetable for a while, but put it in his mouth without much hesitance. After chewing it for a few seconds and tasting it on his palate, he concluded, wow… not too bad.

_Later that day, after Boomer had gotten Butch where he wanted, Butch had agreed to fetch pizza from the pizza parlor instead of their original plan for burgers. Strangely after that trip though, Butch seemed to have downgraded in playfulness and mischievousness. And after the two devoured and gulped down the pizza, the green ruff handed him a small gaming console that he had additionally stolen from a few kids. Then all he did next was lie down on the couch, turn his back from anything else, and play on it silently for hours._

_He definitely seemed aloof. But Boomer let the thought slide as he assumed it being him just mad that he beat him for once. He stuck out his tongue at Butch's turned back, then decided to look out the window before delving into the gaming device. Even with the telescope destroyed, he could clearly see and hear pink, lime, and baby blue streaks of color battling the presence of a distant monster._

_The blue ruff looked at them with twinkling interest. What they seemed to be doing actually seemed…fun. He too, had battled monsters down HIM's lair with his brothers before, but something—something about them doing it seemed different._

_He then, observed the blue Powerpuff in particular. She was taking a few hurtful blows from the huge creature, but she never ceased to return something just as painful of her own. Even though they've battled multiple times, he had never bothered to notice how much of a tough fighter she could be. He shook his head. Despite being a 'girl' that is._

_But watching her, he couldn't help but subconsciously think of her as, maybe, just maybe… pretty rad?_

"Ahem."

Boomer broke away from his thoughts. How much silence or maybe a few additional conversations went on between Mojo and Butch, Boomer didn't know. All three of them were now almost finished with their dinner, but Mojo seemed to have more to say. It was a lingering uncomfortable question that all had evaded touching upon.

"Were there possibly, if not then so be it, any signs of _Brick?"_

It didn't take a second for the spike-haired boy to answer, "Nope, didn't bother lookin for him."

Unlike Boomer, Butch pushed away the broccolis with his fork to the far edge of his plate. Mojo gave him a stink eye. Whether it was because he was not eating his greens or because he offered an insincere answer was questionable.

"Well I suggest you look for him, then." The monkey offered flatly.

Butch dropped his fork. "Why?" He looked over at him, finally seeming willing to have an exchangeable conversation.

"What is there to question? It is to our upmost priority to destroy the Powerpuff girls." The father figure stated. "That is to say, by simple calculation, three is better than two, because three is in fact, a bigger numeric number than two, which means by deduction, three forces combined is stronger than two forces combined, which gives us far more strategic advantage over—"

"SO?! For crying out loud! Why does EVERYBODY always whine about how we need him?!" Butch slammed his fist on the table and propped himself up, his features showing extreme displeasure. The dinner table somehow turned more still and quieter than it was before. "We're better off without that coward!" The green ruff sunk his fist harder and glared at both witnesses. "He betrayed us!"

Mojo in response, irately frowned at his son's petulant behavior, but dismissed it and kept his cool. He could probably imagine where Butch's anger was coming from. "Yes, but-" he sighed for a second to give out his more truthful statement. "He is in an undeniable sense your brother, your leader, your partner in crime. Are you putting forward that you do not _car_ e about him?"

Butch almost broke the table when he gaped his mouth at what he just heard. "Out of everyone else out there, I can't believe _you_ would say that! HECK NO!" Immediately, unable to handle his temper, the boy flung himself off from the seat he was sitting and turned on his heel. "And for the last time, he is NOT my _leader!"_ he spat furiously behind his back.

No one was going to boss him anymore! No one was going to take away the position he rightfully had in his palms. Not when it was now obvious that he was the more competent and deserving as a leader. He didn't care about anybody, he was a vicious villain! Unlike Brick that pathetic moron, he doesn't get his _feelings_ hurt! But still, somehow, even when it comes to this, someone steps up and defends that namby-pamby! That he should _care_ about him!

No, it didn't matter how lousy and boring the day was without him. It didn't matter that they got creamed by the darned Powerpuffs! As if it would have been better with him here. He wouldn't have done any better after screwing up that badly! They didn't need him! It was just this once. Today just was a bad day, that's all!

Mojo and Boomer just watched as Butch strode away in angry steps. Out of the two, the chimpanzee sighed and rubbed his temples. He had already faced short luck with his red son, he was not willing to slip off on another one. Despite the brute father he was, the father monkey was beginning to realize that he needed to amend his ways of communicating if he were to persuade his boys. He sucked in a deep breath and called decisively, "Stop where you are."

Butch turned his head slightly to scoff. "You're gonna make me?"

"Yes," Mojo started off strong, but for his next words he eased up, "if you may please."

The green ruff scrunched his complexion at Mojo's compliance, then rolled his eyes and grudgingly positioned himself to face him. "What."

The brain-capped chimpanzee also pushed himself off of his chair and straightened himself up to talk on equal ground.

"It is not that I do not understand your current resentment towards your brother," he started off, "By no means am I, a treacherous villain, going to put up with that impudent behavior of his in the future. However-" he paused for dramatic effect. He hoped to monkey heavens this would work as he pushed forward. "There are times when we too, the forces of evil, have to team up, collaborate, take care of each other's butts for the sake of _sweet_ but _rotten_ victory over justice. No matter how conflicting it is conceived as a villain." Mojo's expression turned more serious. "Because my child, if we are to lose that brotherhood and teamwork amongst each other—we lose to _them_ , to the snooty little heroes that they are. They will gang up on us in the sickening name of righteousness, and unleash their powers for the pure purpose of peace. Do you really wish for that to happen?"

Butch who was initially about to protest to whatever remark, noticed his genuine take of approach, and took time to process through his well laid out sentences what he was getting at.

 _Ugh..._ Quite honestly, Mojo had a point. In reality, despite the girls being _weak_ and _wimpy_ and in _no match for him_ in their own nature, Butch wasn't confident in taking them on when outnumbered. Especially after how his last battle turned out to be, which by the way, he was going to make sure to avenge next time.

He had to hand it to him. Brick by far, was the one who always knew what to do, even in difficult situations—which was rare for Butch, the 'Baron of Berserk' himself, but still. It was also rare, no, the first time Brick had ever lost his mojo—no pun intended. He was in no doubt the most 'brainy' out of the three in the sickest sense and knew how to make things fun and evil. They needed him. Because although he could be a bossy loser at times, things were okay before he decided to act out.

Butch slowly looked down at the floor with a frown, then eventually shook his head to the monkey's previous question. Mojo took the opportunity to step closer into his zone, making the ruff face up and view him again.

"So that is exactly why we need him. Don't get me wrong son, because it goes the same for you two as well." He emphasized, "No one is better than the other. You all are irreplaceable members in the team in your unique ways. Brick, he is the sharp and cynical who is the mastermind behind tactics. But Butch, you are the underlying brute force and cruelty that powers the team to ultimate victory. And Boomer…" The monkey glanced at his blue son off at the side and scratched his cap. "You uh, brighten up and energize the team as a jokester, but a tough fighter nonetheless." Boomer, comprehending intently, nodded and punched his fist excitedly in the air at the mention of him. "Without him, or any one of you for that matter, the pernicious name of the Rowdyruff Boys will eventually come to an end. Do you understand?"

"Heh, I guess." Butch responded in a much calmer voice than he augmented before, appreciating the recognition he received.

"Yeah, dude." Boomer joined from aside, refusing to be left out.

"Good." The chimp nodded approvingly with eyes closed. "I'm glad that we have all come to terms that it is in our best interest to get Brick back. Besides, we have to cut the boy some immense slack, seeming so that we did push his buttons a little too much than necessary."

Yeah.. they did kind of dump on him a lot when he was in the worst of moods.

Not denying the fact, the green boy simply pulled up his shoulders and looked the other way.

"Uh-huh! And nobody wants to be treated in a mean way, no matter who it is!"

Instantly, both Butch and Mojo perplexedly faced towards Boomer at his interception. The blond boy, acknowledging a bit too late how he mimicked what the blue Powerpuff had taught him earlier, tied his hands behind his back and smiled sheepishly. Thankfully, the brief attention towards him dissipated as Mojo returned to his spiel.

"So yes. And if I do say so myself, I can safely assume you two probably have missed his company this whole time." He lifted an eyelid to process his sons' reaction.

His blue son eagerly agreed, while the green son snorted, but with less cynicism. "As if!" He crossed his arms again, as to put out a last barrier to hide his underlying truthful feelings. Mojo, however, was a keen monkey.

As Mojo stood there gazing over at the green ruff to encourage a follow-up, Butch uncomfortably shifted a while from one foot to the other, then finally let out, "Okay _fine_ , _DA-DA!_ You win this round! We'll look for him tomorrow, ya happy?!"

Mojo's content yet proud grin ignited instead. He was delighted. It was he—Mojo Jojo's first success as a parent to appease a child. Now sure, he might have started out with a rough beginning, but at this rate, he was bound to also resolve the mess that he had made before.

Besides, he had to credit his last remaining son. However ill-behaved he was back then, Brick was right about some things he had said to him. The chimp parent had indeed not been very attentive of their arrival, and to an extent left an opening to think of themselves as nothing but accessories to be used.

A dim sadness showed up on Mojo's face as he himself recollected his past feelings of being used and abandoned by a father figure. He was all that he had, until he decided to turn his attention to… more _important_ matters, that is.

So despite still being an amateur parent, the monkey promised to himself after the incident with Brick, that he would never treat his children as insignificant little dusts, value one child more than the other, or leave any one of them alone to sink in their own grievance. He—Mojo Jojo will become the BEST reigning father in Townsville, that not only his once _father_ nor HIM could ever follow!

With that bold pledge in mind, Mojo called upon his two sons to a side space, claiming he had something to give them.

"Ah, here they are." The mutant chimp approached what seemed to be his work panel, and handed each son a communication device which was in a form of a watch. The two scrutinized the gadget.

"Hah! Lame!" Butch disapproved, merely holding the device on his palm. "Who needs this junk? We've got our powers to communicate!"

"Nono but think about it!" Boomer suggested, "It could be like that spy movie we saw from HIM's crib, you know? What was it, _Mission Unstoppable?"_ The more excited boy of the two put his device on his wrist and started punching in buttons randomly. Then he soon had to jump back as a blue visor appeared in front of his left eye as an augmented reality projection popped up. It was a miniature Townsville. Butch who was watching dully, could not help but also enlarge his eyes.

"Whoa-" he remarked.

"Did I just shrink Townsville?!" Boomer squawked in amazement, earning a few stares.

"No, dum-dum-head. It's just a miniature." Butch explained as he punched buttons on his own, causing a green visor to appear with its own projection. "See?"

The blue ruff's face fell in disappointment. "Oh…"

"Boys, keep in mind, this is not a toy." Mojo asserted, as he stopped the curious hand of Boomer who madly pushed more buttons which could be enough to dismantle the device. "I repeat, it is not a toy. As you can see, this is not just an ordinary 'communication device.' It comes with numerous other features I myself have added for your convenience." He smiled obsequiously, noticing that he had partly earned the boys' hearts. "But if it is to your liking, I'll be sure to add more spy-like features as well."

"Aww, yeah!"

"Cool!"

The two ruffs high-fived each other, ridding the awkward tension they had earlier.

"Don't be bouncing off the walls just yet, because there is more to come." Mojo announced, ushering them downstairs through an opening that mechanically appeared by his command.

The two Rowdyruffs traded glances, then followed suit, only to be greeted by the most amazing sight they could ask for. Various sorts of sporting equipment were arranged neatly all in one place, specifically designed just for them. On the far front, they also noticed coolers and massage chairs for their leisure.

"It is still a work in progress, but I thought I might as well show it to you."

"Holy-"

"Man, you're like the best!"

"Even more than that insolent claw-head?" Mojo put his hands to his sides and looked at his children expectantly.

"You bet." Butch gave Mojo a fist pump and scurried over to try out one of the equipments.

Boomer hovered over and thanked him in a similar manner, then leant over his ear to whisper, "Hey dude, by the way, can you teach me how to cook like you someday?"

Mojo looked at the boy in disbelief. "Do you really wish for me to do that?"

Boomer bobbed his head in the most positive way he could. "It was really cool."

Blanketed in glee, Mojo gave his blue son an assuring smile and agreed, "I do not see why not."

Boomer of course, pulled his arms in and cried _"yes!"_ as he too retreated to the equipments waiting for him.

With that, the green chimp almost teared up in joy as he gradually left the boys to their entertainment and retreated from the personal realm that he had made for them. If only he had the consciousness to do this earlier, he regretted. Then he would have made them all happy from the start. He looked out the window with a worried expression. The day was growing dark, with the descending sun illuminating a red hue of sunset. The parent monkey wondered what Brick was doing by now. Maybe by tomorrow he could have a talk with him. He wanted to be a good father, especially a better one than the red-clawed villain. Though they have shared a fatherly moment once before, he was the rightful creator of the boys, and though they may have made a pact for now, he had full intention of gaining back complete custody—one day.

Back to Butch and Boomer, the ruffs were taking time to ogle and lay their hands on every instrument there was. What they were particularly interested in were the giant speakers they found that stood on the background of the entire personalized gymnasium. Without hesitation, they turned it on and loud motivational music blasted out from the amplifiers, blowing them back. The two cheered and head-banged to the beat of the music, and along the moment, Boomer looked over at Butch slyly and yelled into his ear.

"WOW, looks like _Mojo_ really worked up on his _'MOJO'_ this time, huh?!" he sucked in short snorty breaths and laughed goofily at his own pun.

Butch who would have usually insulted him for saying something stupid, could not help but snicker together this time. Boomer was on a row, which wasn't always too unusual. He felt a little sheepish even, for pushing him around at the beginning of the day. He had to admit, there were times when he underestimated him when he really shouldn't. Today he even built up the nerve to challenge him.

The spike-haired jock walked over to some weights that had extra gravity pull installed onto them to make them much heavier for the boys' taste. Boomer went over to a super-endurance punching bag to beat the living wind out of it.

While Butch lifted his weights, exchanging from one arm after the other, he quickly took a double take at a giant mirror in proximity. Fortunately, due to his super-healing, the black eye on his complexion was long gone before anyone else could take notice. If only Boomer could keep his mouth shut, that is.

Naturally, as Boomer had done before, Butch began to brood on the events that had caused his injury a while ago.

The day had been particularly 'rough' for the Rowdyruff today. The grip on the weight he was holding up tightened with recurring thoughts of his battle against the raging green Powerpuff. What was the deal with sissy-pants today, anyway? It was amusing at first, but then she actually started putting up a fight and—

Butch bit his bottom lip and twitched one of his eyes as he flexed his biceps. This was easily the third time that he was reminded of this!

 _Arghh_. Alright, so the puff _got lucky_ this time and actually beat him to some moves! But it wasn't over! She ran away in her little girly dress before he could properly end the fight! Yeah, that's it!

He put his muscles back at ease and exhaled. Heh, what a lame _girl_ she was! Lamer than lame! Complaining and whining about him hurting his _boyfriend_ —Mitch or Mitten or whatever his name was.

Strange enough, the blasting background music of the gym droned out, and in its place, the green ruff heard his shriek earlier from that day.

" _I care about NOBODY!"_

" _Well I do. And if you EVER try to hurt anyone around me again, then this will not be the end of it! You hear?!"_

The echoing bellow of his past aggressor phased out of his mind. Really. How pathetic.

But in actuality, Butch too had conflicting reflections on how to think of her strange demeanor that day. The real reason that their fight actually led to leave an unforgettable impression on the green ruff, was because despite the green girl projecting her _feelings_ and _hurt_ today, she had managed to _beat_ him. I mean, how was that even possible? The power, the determination, the driving force for vengeance was unlike anything he had ever dealt from her before. Wasn't she supposed to cry hopelessly in despair if he had hurt her _feelings?_ How did she become much stronger? But more importantly, _why?_ Why did she care? And why did it give her so much power?

He just couldn't understand. It was so different from what HIM always nagged about. Don't show your weakness. Expressing feelings is just plain pathetic. It will only break you down.

And Brick had just done that. So that's why for a moment, Butch was less than hesitant to shun him and take his place as a leader. It was finally an opportunity to prove that he was in fact, the tougher and heartless one, contrary to how HIM would always debase him as far less cunning and menacing as Brick was.

But now… Now he just wanted him to return. As much as he didn't want to lose his reputation as the tough one, he himself was beginning to question things. He still couldn't agree that there was no point in reeming those sissy girls, but Brick seemed to be catching up to something. He was, after all, always the more savvy one. And a lot of the things HIM postulated and forced on them seemed questionable these days.

Butch recalled yet another preceding event that had happened to him. The very reason that had temporarily constrained him to be not like himself. The reason he had acted aloof while playing his video game like Boomer noticed before—the visit to the pizza parlor.

_While waiting for the pizzas to be handed in, Butch backed away as a sizable group of customers surreptitiously gathered around him._

" _W-wha?! What's wrong with you morons! Back off!"_

" _You dare show your nasty presence in this territory? Be gone! The girls will soon show you justice for what you have done!"_

" _You've gotta be kidding me, right? Why do you nut-brains have your undies in a knot for something that didn't happen to you?! Have you all been hit over your head?!"_

" _No, but that doesn't matter. Because we CARE about the people around us. Even if it has nothing to do with us!"_

Yes, it was obvious to say, Butch had faced a similar situation at the pizza place as Boomer did. And although he could have easily blown them away through his use of powers, he was highly discomforted by the disposition they unanimously put out. The looks on their faces, their unwavering stance, they were very much like that from the mob from the park and the brown freckled boy and… _the green Powerpuff._

' _You hurt my people and friends, so I POUND you! It's as simple as that!' A past illusion of Buttercup hollered in his mind._

_An entirely foreign and overwhelming feeling crept upon him that instant as he stood bewildered in front of the customers. Fear? Regret? He jumped out of his skin and accelerated to leave with pizza boxes as the infuriated crowd pounced towards him. Nonononono, he couldn't be becoming a wuss like Brick! He didn't CARE! He was a Rowdyruff! Cruel, brutal, menacing…_

Butch came back to reality. This sucked.

The talk with Mojo had opened his eyes to the undeniable truth, though. Whatever this conflicting sick and stupid feeling was, he needed to find Brick. Not only did he need him for beating the girls, but he needed to face him and figure out what the heck was going on. There was an obvious change coursing through him too, and he did not like it at all. The Rowdyruffs had to come back together. And if Brick were to say something stupid, and refuse to join again, he was gonna have to punch some sense into him.

Butch looked over at Boomer who was currently jovially pounding the punching bag but then accidentally took a blow on the face from the rebounding equipment. The blond boy yelped and rubbed the bridge of his nose to ease the pain. The raven-haired bystander sighed. His blue brother did not seem to have taken any notice of strange transformation just yet. At least not from what he was seeing.

ㅡ

On the opposite side of Townsville, three completely fatigued figures of the heroines were meekly hovering over their town towards the direction of their house after they had finally hurled the abominable monster back to Monster Island. Compared to other days, the three had performed rather poorly on their teamwork, dragging on with the fight—and they knew that for themselves, too. All three were incapable of giving their all to the previous battle with other matters going on.

The silence among them was uncomfortable to say the least, until Buttercup parted her lips and snarled, "That was such a stupid long fight! It could have ended so much earlier! If only…" she glared over at Bubbles.

Bubbles in turn, mirrored her and challenged her to continue, "if only WHAT."

"If only you stopped being a fraidy-cat and could have actually put up a fight!"

The blond puff clenched her teeth and snapped back, "I WAS NOT a fraidy-cat and I DID put up a fight!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Would you two please STOP?!" The leader's voice screeched between their tantrums to halt them from their childish display of actions. "The battle is over! No matter how long it took to get to it, we all defeated the monster together!"

"Oh yeah?" Buttercup sneered over at her mockingly. "What about the Rowdyruffs huh? And your complete FAILURE to track down Brick?! You couldn't even keep your head in the battle just now! Who's the perfect leader now?!"

"You seriously think you can put the whole blame on _me?!"_ Blossom retorted sharply. "You for one, didn't even cooperate while fighting that monster!"

"Yeah well I don't take orders from those who side with the villain!"

"It was out of complete logical reasoning that I stood for the Rowdyruff Boys back then! You're just too stubborn to admit that there are times when even villains can be innocent!"

" _Villains_ and _innocent_ never go together smart-brain!"

"Well how would you know?!" Having enough of this, Bubbles impatiently cut in to the fight and scowled at Buttercup. "You're just jealous that Blossom is way smarter than you!"

"What did you say, you crybaby?!"

In an instant, the three siblings raised their voices simultaneously and continued arguing the entire route home. The sun fell under the horizon and sunk behind the darkness in duration by the time the girls reached the front door of their house. Not even bothering to ring the doorbell, the three barged into the entrance and consecutively filled the house space with unpleasant quarreling.

The professor, hearing the turbulence, stuck his head out of the kitchen. "Girls, you're home! What's wrong—why are you so late?"

All three heads steered towards him concurrently, but before anyone could lament their side of the story, Blossom settled the melee by assuring their father, "Nothing, professor. It was just a slight disagreement."

And succeeding their leader, the two other Powerpuffs huffed at each other, but restrained from any further disputes in front of the professor. Slight concern resided on the scientist, but nonetheless he guided them in for dinner, knowing they had gone through quite a troublesome day.

The menu that had neatly been set on the table was meatloaf, one of the girl's favorites on list. However, in spite of their hunger from skipping lunch and engaging in difficult combat, no one was quite enthusiastic to dig in to the food. But noticing the professor's look of worrisome questioning, Blossom and Bubbles picked up their utensils and began nibbling on their supper.

Buttercup on the other hand, remained static in her seat as she jut out her mouth in a pout and looked down at her plate. The red-headed leader, annoyed by her sister's impudence, purposefully brought up a conversation to aggravate the green puff.

"Professor, do you think it's possible for anyone to be _born_ _bad?"_ She asked her father in an innocent tone. Buttercup immediately grasped at what she was getting at and fired a murdersome look that could kill.

The professor however, unaware of the tension, was delighted to answer Blossom's question that tore away the silence.

"Why no, Blossom. I don't believe so." He massaged his chin and delved briefly in thought. "There does exist a lot of heinous villains out there but usually most of them have a reason that has driven them to become evil, or…" The professor himself stopped, then with a flashing memory, he hung his head morosely, "had… no one to properly _guide them."_

Buttercup abruptly pushed her seat back and stood up. "I'm not hungry," she declared coarsely, and flew up the stairs to hit the showers before anyone could stop her. Blossom watched her leave, and slightly questioned if she had been too mean. It was immature, for sure, but she could not figure out any other way to convince her further.

Bubbles too, stayed reticent when her green sister left. She was angry at her for insulting her earlier, but also because she was unwilling to give any of the Rowdyruffs a chance. It was understandable of course, but she could at least hear Blossom out instead of being so bullheaded. In the blue puff's opinion, everyone deserved a chance, seeing how one of the ruffs turned out to be pretty nice…. Then again, neither of her sisters knew of course. She glanced at Blossom. The blond girl decided to now side with her for a while.

ㅡ

It was suffice to say, dinner had inevitably ended in awkwardness, but nonetheless it came to an end. As the professor wrapped up Buttercup's untouched plate and placed it in the refrigerator, he called over his two girls.

"Now girls, I've noticed you three had run into an internal argument." Blossom and Bubbles faced down at the floor at the mention of the elephant in the room. Their father smiled endearingly to relieve them they were not in trouble, and crouched down to meet their eye level. "I trust you to solve it out and make up some day, but just remember that you three are sisters. Before you are a team, you are family. And family always sticks together no matter what."

"Yes, we understand, professor." The two puffs answered half-heartedly at his advice together.

Receiving their reply, the professor gave them each a light hug and dismissed them to get ready for bed, hoping they would learn to find a way to work out on their problems by their own.

The two tired heroines did what they were told by getting cleaned up and changing into their night clothes to prepare for bed. Eventually when they entered their room, they noticed Buttercup had already found her place down on the three-striped bed, her back turned away from the middle, edging as far away towards the end as possible. The two pursed their lips at the sight of her and flew over to lie down on their respective spots. Buttercup, sensing their presence, scooched farther away from Blossom, in danger of falling off. Bubbles in contrast, stayed close to her pink sister, and before placing her head on her pillow, she looked over at Buttercup and blew a raspberry at her.

Blossom exhaled a sigh and reached over to turn off the lamp lights.

ㅡ

Night had fallen to its darkest as Blossom peeped open her eye and directed it to the clock. It was close to midnight.

In a brilliant second of thought association, she decided that she would go check on the red Rowdyruff if he was still there. There was still a lot to hear from and say to him. And although the pink puff knew it was wrong to assume.. he definitely seemed to need help. If he was still there alone and distressed, she didn't know how, but she wanted to comfort him before she could, if any, figure out what to do with him. With a responsible nature of a leader inside of her, she felt a certain obligation as a hero, and a fellow empathizer of his position.

The redheaded leader shuffled up quietly as possible and changed back into her outdoor clothes. She looked one last time at her sleeping sisters with a heavy heart, surprised that she was willing to even _lie_ to them to help the Rowdyruff. She then creaked open their bedroom door and closed it silently, tiptoeing down the stairs, the living room, and towards the front door.

But before she could head out the door, she paused in her steps, glimpsing at the open kitchen door with her eyes. She visualized in her head the leftover meatloaf that Buttercup hadn't touched from dinner. With that, she bit her lip and hesitated, but changed her destination towards the refrigerator to pack the leftover meatloaf in a ziplock and paper bag, and whisked out of the main door before she could risk waking anyone up.

ㅡ

Buttercup couldn't stand the sound and feeling of her stomach repeatedly growling, and was forcefully woken up from her sleep. She muttered incomprehensible words and kicked herself out of bed, and later noticed Blossom was not on her side of the bed. The exhausted green puff just assumed that she was in the bathroom and dragged her way downstairs to the kitchen. She opened the fridge door, wincing a little from the emanated light, and searched for her meal, only to find it not there. Buttercup let out a puzzled yawn, scratching her tangled hair and wondering where it might have gone. Did somebody finish off an extra plate?

Then it hit her. The green puff expanded her eyes as a creeping speculation of doubt crawled on her back. Did she? No she couldn't have! Buttercup in desperation, rummaged all the rooms of the house in search of her leader.

In the middle of her surveillance, Buttercup recalled how Blossom hesitated to answer whether she had found Brick, and how she incessantly tried to convince her not all villains turn out to be guilty all the time. Slowly the green girl was able to put two and two together.

She found him, didn't she?! And she was covering for him!

Buttercup grinded her teeth together to the point it hurt. Worst of all, _she had taken her meatloaf!_

ㅡ

The last remaining Powerpuff rubbed her sleepy eyes and woke up, suddenly feeling the cold sense of abandonment. And in fact, when she looked around, she found herself alone on the bed in the darkness.

"Blossom? Buttercup…?" The startled Powerpuff hugged her blanket sheets and curled herself into a ball. She was rarely ever left alone to be in the dark, and she was afraid as to where her sisters might have disappeared.

Right at that point, Bubbles heard a familiar sound of momentum echo as a lime green streak of light passed by out the window in short notice.

 _Buttercup!_ Bubbles urgently ran up to the window and watched her sister distance away to the dark sky. The frightened Powerpuff timidly jerked her head sideways, unsure what to do. She absolutely did not want to be left in the room on her own, but the draping darkness outside scared her the same.

She indecisively rolled on her two tiny feet back and forth, then chose to chase after her sister before it was too late.

The sparkling moonlight and stars were her only source of comfort as the blue puff hurriedly zipped into her clothes and blasted out to the looming black celestial sphere of the night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter contains some Brick and Blossom fluff! ;)


	8. Are We All Lost Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silent moments ticked by in his cautious position… then, after a confirming creak of wood echoed from the front porch, he hastily swept the door open almost breaking the door off of its hinge.
> 
> And there she was.
> 
> Out stood the pink Powerpuff on the porch of the cabin, as if to answer his grave longing for company. A passing wind grazed her face softly and gently tousled the back of her long strands.
> 
> Facing who he had partially expected, the red ruff did not know what to feel. Anger? Annoyance? Relief?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was personally my favorite chapter! :D
> 
> P.S.: This chapter contains many references to "The Powerpuff Girls Movie", and some from "Bubble Boy".

The sound of stirring leaves caressed the thick of a shadowy forest. A chilly brisk wind took shape and lightly jangled the rim of a lake, proceeding to whirl around an abandoned cabin close by—almost abandoned, that is. For inside the lodge came a dingy light emitting from a dusty old oil lamp, illuminating and heating its surrounding dark. Yet, with the cutting edge of the cold night wind seeping through the sloppily patched holes of the cabin, the source of slight warmth was barely distinguishable. In that event, the Rowdyruff who was dosing off on a wooden chair shivered from a sudden cold rush and repositioned himself to retain his bodily heat.

Understandably, the red-headed boy had more than little trouble submerging into deep sleep. Previously that day, after being fed up moping around, he had in fact gathered small timber at an attempt to fix furniture in the lodge and block up unwanted openings of the exterior. In a corner, he had also scavenged an oil lamp that could be a helpful light source during the night. However, his luck turning sour, most of the furniture—the bed especially—were in such wretched condition to be properly repaired by his inexperienced hands. Not to mention the oil lamp he had found had hardly any oil left to burn, hence his poor circumstances. And to top all that misfortune, throughout the entire day the ruff had found neither edible food source to replenish him nor any activities to entertain him.

He was cold, hungry, and as much as he hated it… _lonely…_

The red ruff grouched in his sleep and wrapped his arms around him. Never had he in his life had to do anything alone. As a natural course, the leader boy normally made his brothers do all of the dirty work, and even when that wasn't the case, the dink-heads were always there to enjoy whatever it was with him together. They were typically very supportive, no matter how much he ordered them around. And among all the multiple shenanigans they shared, he began to miss how Butch would always throw some extra sauce into the mix, and heck, he even missed Boomer's stupid remarks here and there.

But he knew—he knew he wasn't invited back with them anymore, or anywhere else in alteration.

With sad bitterness, the red boy opened his eyes narrowly. Seriously though, not that he ever wished them to— _peh,_ but it seemed like none of them had even bothered to look for him. Just as he thought, nobody even cares that he's gone. Nobody came. Nobody—

Except for one. That know-it-all pink Powerpuff who to his surprise, did not rat him out or return to immediately raid him with her stupid daisy crew. And he had been pretty positive that she would come back, even though he threatened her NOT TO.

…Whatever. In all honesty, now that he thought about it, maybe quarreling with that obnoxious puff would have been a better scheme than being stuck here with absolutely nothing to do or no one to talk to. Grudgingly, he brought the brim of his red cap to the front and jammed it down to cover his face. Running away stunk more than he had impulsively planned. He had carelessly believed that once he abandoned HIM and Mojo's grasp, and the taunting and shunning of others, everything would turn out for the better. For sure, anything was _still_ better than being in that pit-hole of lame idiots, but he had imagined life to be much easier. Yet no way did he feel this was _easy._ He was _freezing, starving, and sulking like a wimp_ for crying out loud! He was free, but not free in the way he wanted.

The ruff clenched his arms tighter for warmth as another breeze stroke him. _Screw 'not needing anybody!'_ he squirmed. At this point, he longed for company— _any company._

_*Rustle*_

… _!_

Right away, the leader's red eyes lit up in alert at the disturbance. Apart from the gentle crinkle of the leaves, Brick was quick to detect a meek but foreign tremor from afar after spending hours alone. The boy blinked away his puzzlement and shoved the brim of his cap backwards. Not sure what to do, the current owner of the shed frowned and stealthily crossed over to the other side of the wooden floor, holding his breath. He listened closely again, questioning if he had heard it right.

Silent moments ticked by in his cautious position… then, after a confirming creak of wood echoed from the front porch, he hastily swept the door open almost breaking the door off of its hinge.

And there she was.

Out stood the pink Powerpuff on the porch of the cabin, as if to answer his grave longing for company. A passing wind grazed her face softly and gently tousled the back of her long strands.

Facing who he had partially expected, the red ruff did not know what to feel. Anger? Annoyance? _Relief?_

The two stood there momentarily in a staring contest, equally confused in the predicament. The boy eyed her features evenly. _What was she doing here?_ She didn't come back when he had mentally prepared himself to face her and her stupid sisters right after his location was exposed. So why the heck was she back _now?_ To see how miserable he became? To jab him when he's most vulnerable? Or maybe… finish off that obscure sentence she left him to be stunned for hours…?

"… _I was just as upset as you were."_

Yet another forest breeze seemed to carry his recollection. The dwindling gust of air lingered between them, amplifying the still silence.

And while the boy stood there speechless, the pink visitor slowly lowered her protracted arm that was originally up there to knock on the entrance, and offered an awkward hand-wave in greeting.

"Uh- hi."

At her opener, the Rowdyruff likewise recovered from his former trance and knitted his face. _How stupid… What did all that matter to him?_

His senses resurfacing, the red ruff as usual, switched on his arrogant maneuver in return. "Hah," a little snort released from his nose, "I'm surprised that you didn't bring your dopey sisters along," he remarked to the trespasser, leaning his arm on the doorway.

Little did he know, this was the exact reaction that she had already anticipated from him.

Dispersing her slight nervousness, Blossom in time looked straight at her counterpart and collected her determination. She had briefly rehearsed this scenario in her head before she arrived at this current spot.

To what she figured, if she were to catch Brick off guard and break through his hard stubborn shell, she sure had to be bold and tactless. The Brick she knew before lived off of his vanity and the recognition from _others._ If some of that essence was left in him, by now with nobody around, he was bound to be lonely—but he wouldn't admit that. So what she had to do was ram herself into his comfort zone, though not too much to hurt his reputation. She had to be _brash,_ but _delicate_ at the same time.

 _Hah…. the things she would do as a hero._ She fixed herself into a more languid and relaxed position.

_Come on Blossom, you can do this…_

The pink heroine mimicked her counterpart's cocky expression and rebounded in similar rhetoric, " _I'm_ surprised you didn't move your _obvious_ little hiding place," she smirked with tingling amusement. Truthfully though, she really did half-expect this place to be empty. "How did you know it was me? Were you expecting?"

The red ruff glowered at her, putting knuckles to sides. So she _was_ here to call him out! No way was he going to back down and show any sign of weakness!

"I woke up from your clumsy _girl_ _feet_ making such a ruckus! I thought I told you to keep out, toots. A little brain-dead on memory?" he spat.

At that, the Powerpuff rolled her eyes dramatically. "Wow, you expected me to just do what you tell me?" With that, she brushed off his mockery, and pushed past him whilst giving a teasing little smile. "I can come in, right?"

The red ruff's pupils dilated in surprise.

"What?! No you-"

It was too late. Before the boy knew it, the Powerpuff was already in his personal hideaway, examining its lacking condition. The boy could only goggle incredulously at her presumptuous act. _What in the world…?!_

"Listen you dimwitted Powerpuff, you better get out right now or-!"

"You fixed this place up a bit," the puff cut in, "but uhh… it could need some more work."

"DO YOU THINK I CARE?! Get out or I'll-"

"Hey! I brought some food. Are ya hungry?"

Completely ignoring Brick's angry burst of revolts, Blossom twirled towards him and high-spiritedly held up the paper bag she brought in front of his nose. His super senses automatically kicking in, Brick took an unintentional sniff of the package before he bit his tongue and resisted himself away. But in that brief second, his brain had processed the internal contents... _meat_ ….

"Are you stupid?!" he yelled resiliently, "to think I would take food from _you?!"_

The pink girl simply tilted her head in a curious manner, throwing the boy off. "What? It's not poisonous. You can tell by your powers."

The red ruff crinkled his brow and grunted doubtfully at her anti-climatic suggestion. Though, it was true. Brick's super scent had already detected no harmful signs of whatever was in the packet. But that was NOT THE POINT. This had to be a trap. And Rowdyruff or not, he was never going to get help from a girl! Let alone a _Powerpu-!_

In that brilliant timing, his stomach bellowed shamelessly out in the open for said Powerpuff to hear. Unseemly of him, the ruff jumped back and took a few strides behind, bracing his stomach in embarrassment.

Blossom just shook her head and smiled to him warmingly. "I know you're hungry, Brick. And no one's looking, you know, if you're _scared_ getting caught receiving help from me."

The Rowdyruff scoffed at her kind gesture and stubbornly whipped his head away from her to face the corner of the lodge. He wasn't _scared._ But that was hardly enough reason to rely on the Powerpuff for food! She and her sisters were the reason for him being miserable, right?! He ran off to this lousy place because he was tired of hearing of them! So why would he ever get help from the very prime reason he was trying to avoid?!..

 _Still…_ he contemplated this as he analyzed his situation. Because Brick's stomach indeed, had been growling for a while.

Evidently, the red boy hadn't thought carefully through this when he isolated himself in the woods. The option of actually hunting the animals in the area did cross his mind, but it was easier said than done. He wanted greasy fries, processed meat, junk food, anything but organic! And today, the wilderness was surely not his friend in helping that, and he definitely wasn't gonna become a vegetarian right then and there to start chomping down on some yucky grass on the ground.

And in another light…

Brick writhed his features in reluctance. _Ah man, this really stunk!_

Although it had been a short while—he had _missed this._ Someone else's presence. And the puff shockingly, didn't come to him as an exception. True, even though he had wanted nothing to do with the Powerpuff earlier, later on, with her words digging deeper under his skin, the ruff had recurrently wondered if she was ever coming back. The girl drove him insanely up the wall, but for a while, he was even willing to put up with that to save himself from sheer boredom. And that last meaningful edge of sadness on her face... might have been some kind of trick, but the puff seemed to be on to something.

 _But can he trust her? Just let her in?_ A weak dumb girl who defends those losers in town and everything else that are sappy and pathetic like _flowers,_ and _rainbows,_ and... _love?_ What possible benefit would he get from having her stick around?

From a distance—even in the dim lighting of the cabin—Blossom, being the acute girl she was, noticed that the tension on Brick's back had somewhat lightened for a while, and therefore stepped forward to present her other method of conciliation. Be the situation as it may, the fact that he had momentarily stopped trying to kick her out of the space meant something hopeful.

"You can take it or leave it really," the pink girl suggested lightly, jiggling the meatloaf bag in front of her. "After all, _I'm_ the one who barged in all of a sudden, right? You didn't ask for my help."

Fortunately, her method seemed effective. Immediately, Brick jerked his head up and gazed over his shoulder at her pretty good raise of point. The puff was right; there was no need to overcomplicate this! He for himself, never stooped down to ask for help, did he? _She_ invited herself in. _She_ offered him food. And _he_ didn't have to move a finger. And with all internal complexity aside, what use would all this be if he blew off this _opportunity?_ He was starving, and he couldn't get himself to sleep anyway. He had nothing to lose in the time being.

The red boy grinned and turned to her fully. "I guess if you put it like that," he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

He approached the pink girl and snatched the bag in her hands before she could change her mind. But Blossom laid her palms back, showing no intent of stopping him.

The Rowdyruff then went over to fetch his wooden chair and continued to stroll his way towards a wooden table in the room. Alas, before he could even lay down the meal on the surface, the frail table crumbled before his eyes to a useless pile. Blossom, witnessing all this, could not help but release some giggles.

"Shut it," the red boy snapped, unpacking the contents anyway. "Who needs a table?" Once he got to the plate itself, he heated the meal up with his laser vision and gulped down the food in one bite without bothering to sit down.

The Powerpuff watched in awe at his eager speed out of hunger as he finished off and burped out proudly.

"Not bad," he commented the best out of his manners, and tossed the empty plate to the side. "Now what, Powerpuff? You came here for a reason, didn't ya?" Arms crossed, Brick looked over at Blossom with a less than amused expression.

"Yeah, but…" the Powerpuff droned at her last word, and looked around.

With only the oil lamp flickering, the cabin was an awfully dark place to hang around. Moreover, the occasional wind penetrating through the walls hardly made it a cozy atmosphere to talk. The Powerpuff mulled in her head for a solution.

"It's a bit _cold_ in here, don't you think?" She brought up slyly, as if pointing to something mischievous. "Let's build a _campfire._ " The puff concluded.

Brick was preparing for a smart comeback to anything, but… "Huh?"

Without waiting around, the pink girl sprinted outside in super speed and raced around collecting firewood. Realizing what was happening, the Rowdyruff kicked the closing door from her leave open and hollered, "What are you, _nuts?!_ You'll send off a signal and let others know where we are!"

Not giving a darn at his words, the eager Powerpuff zipped back from the forests after profusely leaping around among the trees, and placed the big hunks of wood she found on suitable ground. While the puff dusted her hands clean in proud achievement, the quick tempered Rowdyruff took his chance to march towards her angrily and grab her wrist to make her face him.

" _This_ is what you were planning, weren't you?! To have your sisters find me!" The red boy was incensed as he got all up in her face. Under the moonlight of the dark, he clenched his teeth and leant back, his features soon emanating a devilish smirk. "I should have known! Well don't think I can't take down the three of you!"

_How idiotic! Just when he thought that she, she actually came to-!_

_*Swat!*_

"Relax, will you?" The calm but sturdy voice of the heroine resounded. The back of the ruff's hand stung as she had pulled her wrist down along with his hand moments ago and swatted the back of it with her other hand to set her free. "If that really was my plan, then why would I go through all the trouble of talking to you instead of ambushing from the start?"

The ruff ignored the remaining twinge on his hand and snapped back, "Hah, don't think you can fool me! You wanted to make sure I was here first! Then make sure I wouldn't get any ideas to escape while you caught me off guar-"

"Well genius, do you hear anyone coming from the sound of us _arguing?"_

Blossom's shrewd assertion left the boy wordless. Nonetheless, he took a second to listen to anything echoing in the murkiness, until he finally admitted,

"…No."

The girl's face brightened softly. "See..? I just really thought a campfire would be a good idea. Besides, no one's going to see the smoke in this hour." She gazed into the runaway boy's unconvinced face and guided it to the stars in the sky. "Come on, it'll be fun. Just look at the sky."

Although reluctantly, the red boy gradually followed her gaze and took a small glimpse at the night sky. And when he did… his whole frame froze still, and only his huge round pupils navigated aimlessly to soak in the countless sparkling stars beautifully embroidered on the black tapestry above.

He couldn't believe his own eyes. He had never taken in such a sight in his short span of life. The scene of HIM's underworld, the usual sight of daylight—nothing could compare to what he was seeing right now.

He brought his stunned gaze down and faced the girl standing patiently next to him.

"You've… never seen this?" The girl asked, which he responded with a cross of his head.

Blossom stared down at her feet pensively. Though Brick guessed wrong, he was right in pointing out how this was all originally part of her 'tactic' to lift her guilt as a hero—out of obligation, mostly. But now, the empathetic part of her that had propelled to leave her house was drawing stronger. Of course… she should have figured. He probably hadn't experienced or seen part of the world he _should have_ deserved as a little boy. He probably never had been given time to understand the world as she did. And from what she observed to this point, he was beginning to realize how it could 'hurt,' and maybe even, how something in his villainous life feels 'wrong'—to have instigated him to run away and refuse to return.

There was only one way to find out. Blossom peered at her counterpart and gave him a patient smile. She wasn't sure of it when she first saw him this afternoon, but now it came clear to her as crystal. Now, she _wanted_ to help him, not because she _needed_ to.

"So what do you say? It's kind of cold out here, too." She inquired with her eyes and massaged her exposed arms in the cool air.

Brick grunted loudly. "Get out of the way," he said, demanding the puff to step aside from the firewood. As soon as she obliged, he shot the firewood with his laser and started a blazing fire.

"Careful! You don't want to burn the whole forest down," The startled Powerpuff warned. "If that happens, then that _definitely_ would give out a signal."

"Who cares! Did'ya want the fire or not?" Brick grouched with a slight pout on his face.

Blossom, at the sight of his unamused expression, shook her head and laughed playfully in willing defeat. "Alright fine, flame-boy," she remarked. "You stay here and watch the fire while I find a log for us to sit."

The red-headed boy watched the puff vanish behind the pillars of trees, and when he was sure of her disappearance, he quirked a slight smirk. There were no signs of danger ahead, so he decided it best to play along with the Powerpuff's game.

So, matters were taken, and by the time Blossom returned with a sizeable log above her head, she noticed Brick adding more fuel and controlling the fire. The Powerpuff grinned happily in delight and gently laid down the log.

"You found it?" Despite the small volume, the red ruff, feeling her presence nearby, turned to ask.

And after taking in the situation, he sized the wood with his eyes and sat down next to her, but kept a distance in between. He later picked up a long twig and poked the fire with the piece of wood, keeping the fire alive.

In a matter of seconds, the crackling fire instantly spread a warm blanket to envelope the two. And the lake a few yards away had embraced the mirror reflection of the spectacles in the sky ceiling.

Letting a few still moments settle by watching the scenery, the pink puff finally opened up with her side of the story, which was primarily her reason being there.

"My runaway place was a rocky planet."

"..."

This was obviously a continuation from what she left with before. The red boy visibly acknowledged her conversation starter, but maintained his eyes on the flames. That was okay with Blossom, so she continued,

"We were first out on the streets, but we were later kicked out… And, that barren planet was _worse._ It was dark, cold… there was no food or shelter, and I was devastated. We all were. My sisters and I—we didn't know what to do when we had faced the hatred in the townspeople's eyes, let alone.. our dad."

Brick's eyes stirred noticeably.

"You expect me to believe that?" He put down his twig and looked at her with high level of disbelief. " _Please._ A bunch of goody-goodies running off to outer space? Why wouldya ever do that? Why would those pip-squeaks ever hate you three?"

"Because-" Blossom drew in a breath and looked at her feet, "Because we didn't understand. When the professor created us, when we first came to be.. we didn't understand we were different, and neither did they. We didn't understand the capability of our powers, and how it could inflict a lot of pain on them—and what that depth of pain actually meant." The puff sadly gazed into the flames, where she visioned the past hate-filled expressions of the citizens. "…That was until we faced their harsh negativity, and saw the loss of trust in the Professor's eyes."

"So then why did you come back?" The boy pestered, "Why the heck would you come back to the crummy old town that kicked you out?"

To respond to his impatient inquiry, the heroine's unequivocal answer easily rolled off her tongue.

"Because what pained us more than our pain from their hatred, was the pain of the ones _we loved._ Even though they doubted us before, as soon as we heard the cry of pain from the Professor, we didn't think twice to go back and save them from mayhem." She put on a tender expression whilst recalling the moment she discovered her purpose to fight crime.

Suddenly, Blossom looked to her side in surprise as snickers of harsh ridicule spilled out of Brick's mouth. His past signs of empathy towards her autobiography were devoid.

"What a load of garbage!" he belittled, "If someone's so weak that they don't have the power to save themselves in the first place, they deserve to be _abandoned!_ Those wimps should be strong enough to survive alone!"

Blossom looked at him dazed. Soon enough, at his pretentious gall, she could feel her anger bubbling up from her stomach. _Didn't he realize?!_ He was just rebelling against the fact that he was talking about _himself_ and exactly what _he was going through!_ Enough beating around the bush! He had to get real and face the truth.

"Well on that matter, how are _you_ holding up Brick?" the puff challenged.

By her stern tone, Brick instantly picked up her point and stood up from his seat to direct red glowing eyes back in agitation.

"Look, you dimwit! I am NOT weak, and I can TOO save myself!"

"Can you, Brick? Can you?"

"YES! I TOLD YOU! I wasn't _abandoned!_ It was my choice to leave!"

"But _WHY?!"_ Blossom could feel her voice escalating. "It was because they didn't understand your _pain,_ wasn't it?! Because they just couldn't accept how you felt!"

"SHUT UP!"

"You were HURT! And you just wanted them to _care_ and _understand!"_ The Powerpuff breathed deeply from frustration. "Didn't you?!"

"I-!…"

" _Didn't you?!"_

Before long, the Rowdyruff lost his words as they broke into pieces in his throat. It was no use denying. Her words clawed deep into him like venom, but they only stung because they were true…

The ruff, in time, found his annealing point as logic pounded itself into him. There was no escape to fool her anymore. Not after what he had already told her at their first encounter. She had to be _oh so stinkin' smart._

He exhaled heavily in surrender.

"Yeah..." he cooled down his hot head and admitted with a grudge-filled heart. "But what's it to ya, puff?" he suspected, folding his arms in front of his chest. "What do you _want_ from all this?"

"…Nothing." Blossom's expression had already loosened when she responded earnestly. "I just, want to help."

"…"

Strangely, that confirmed everything.

Brick's bottom lip wobbled the tiniest bit as he let her response sink in. Mixed feelings began to twist and turn inside his system, and it was obvious why. Because he in fact, had already guessed and, _hoped_ from the start that she did want to help for no apparent reason. Just like how she last looked at him and left with sorrowful eyes.. how she kept it a secret and returned to see if he was still here.. and most of all, how she was standing right here and now, knowing all too clearly what he _felt_ and _was_ _feeling,_ without judging him or ridiculing him to bits.

He could see well through her intentions, he wasn't stupid. Her words just now made it all much clearer. But _why?_ —why she was willing to put up with him and _help_ when it literally had no benefit on her side, he couldn't understand. Out of pity? To be the _nice little_ _good girl?_

The red ruff sunk his teeth deep inside. Whatever it was, he had decided to play along with her _little plan,_ didn't he? Because rather than disregarding or making fun of his agony like the others, she had chosen to stay around and understand his situation. Right now, that was clearly all that he craved. All that he needed and all that he _never_ had. He had nothing more to lose and nowhere else to turn.

So if she was the only one willing to go this far to reach out to him at this dark-ridden forest, then he didn't care about anything else—any rules or judgment that he abandoned anyway. He was going to take her offer.

In slow order, Brick unfolded his arm gesture and spread them apart. "You got me," he conceded, positioning himself down on the log again.

"So, I might as well lay it on you, huh?" The ruff evaded her glance, not yet comfortable of what he was about to say next. He placed his elbows on his lap in deep thought. "I've been having these questions, Powerpuff. Questions of how 'being evil' might not really make sense to me sometimes... Weird, huh? For a villain to say this."

Through the end of his eye, Brick glimpsed at Blossom and caught her shaking her head and encouraging him to go on. Gaining some courage, the ruff surprisingly smiled a little.

"I'll be frank," he began, "I don't really remember the very first time we met. Yeah sure, I have fuzzy memories, _the kiss_ and all-" Brick drawled, "-but the only reason I remember the details, is because HIM kept blathering about it."

"HIM?"

"Yup. After he 'brought us back to life' he always blubbered in his stupid speech how we were all _destined to be evil_ and how it was _what we always wanted_ and all that crap, to destroy you three."

Blossom drank in this information thoughtfully. So HIM played a role in this event, too. And he told the boys what it was like before their revival and how they felt rather than have them recall it themselves. It sounded as if…

"-It was as if he was trying to _brainwash_ us or something."

"-It sounds as if he was trying to _brainwash_ you."

The two stared at each other in amazement after they enumerated simultaneously.

"I know, right?! That was what I was thinking!" Brick turned to her excitedly. "And I always had that suspicion in mind I tell ya, especially every time he insisted to drug us with some fishy liquid."

"Drug you?!" Blossom's attention peaked.

"Yeah, there's this liquid he calls medicine. But I don't believe him. Well anyway-"

Before he knew it, words streamed out from his mouth like it was the easiest thing in the world. He told her about his weeks of intensive training in HIM's lair before he and his brothers reached the surface. And how every day after that, he would still force them through workouts though he sometimes let them have some temporary rest. Last but not least, he told her how the clawed-demon was always so squeamish in letting them out in the surface for too long, which is why they were only seen in the day time for just a short while.

Blossom found the ruff's story very credible. Come to think of it, if the Rowdyruff Boys were free to roam around above ground all the time, with other unlawful acts plaguing Townsville, the girls would have been tired out by their mischief already. But that wasn't the case. The boys always disappeared somewhere with HIM and came back some time after. And this time recently, they had been gone for a month!

"Say, weren't you guys gone for a month this time?" Blossom formed her contemplations to a question.

"Oh, yeah," Brick affirmed, "that was because HIM and Mojo made this _useless_ _pact_ to take turns being our parent for a month. It was HIM's turn just a while ago, now it's.. Mojo's turn…"

Blossom noticed Brick trailing off, and suggested for him, "So… he _shunned you_ for being upset after you got attacked by a mob?"

"Uh, not exactly... The monkey-brain doesn't know anything about that. He just-" Brick hesitated as it kind of felt silly now. "Forgot." He let it out. "He forgot it was his turn to be our dad. And he didn't even apologize _like we don't mean anything to him at all!_ We're just tools to him, like it is to that claw-head!"

Blossom felt her heart ache at his confession.

"That's… very unfortunate." The pink puff murmured sympathetically, acknowledging the hurt he must have felt; first when he was forgotten, and further when Mojo refused to apologize. For her next gesture, the pink girl searched the boy's gloomy expression and shifted over on the log to lessen the distance they had between them. "Mojo should have at least given you an apology. I'm sorry you had to go through that." The puff gently put her palm on his shoulder, making the boy momentarily shudder, but allow it at the end.

The shaken up Rowdyruff however, dodged eye contact with her again, unsure how to react to kindness and comfort such as this. He thought for sure that once he had a Powerpuff or _anyone_ act 'nice' to him again, he would feel sick and blow chunks everywhere. Yet the warming feeling inside him completely debunked that prolonged assumption. Is _this_ what he was missing in life? Is this what he believed for so long to be weak and pathetic? Then what was this amazing feeling of strength beating inside his heart? Did the Powerpuffs always cope with their life with this sense of mentality?

Watching him flounder in new emotions, Blossom could only simper pleasantly at her counterpart. It was all plainly noticeable how he had never really thanked anybody in his life. She placed her hand down beside him and went on with her more serious dialogue.

"Those people at the park, too. They shouldn't have lashed out on you like that for no reason. I'm sorry for doubting you."

Brick winced at her stinging remark, staring at his hands hanging on his lap uneasily. He knew what she said wasn't entirely true. And after the sincerity she bestowed on him earlier, something made him intuitively feel that he should tell her the truth.

"Actually…" he attempted slowly, "We did kind of… _mug_ a dude."

Off at his side, Brick could see Blossom bump up one of her eyebrows.

"You what?"

The ruff pressed on nervously with a toothy smile. "And I uh… kind of did _punch_ one of the kids first when they ganged up on us. Then everyone around got all butthurt about it and attacked us."

"Brick!"

"Well whaddya expect?" he flailed his arms defensively. "It was just for kicks, nothing serious! That's what we always did, ya know?"

The cross Powerpuff merely sighed and shook her head sideways. At least he was being honest about this.. and the citizens still should not have done what they did. But regardless, the Rowdyruff wasn't entirely off the hook.

"Not saying what the people did was a-okay, but you do at least realize why they were _butthurt,_ right? You guys pushed those people around all the time, so you had to expect them to push back sometime."

Brick frowned as the edges of his lips sunk down along with his pupils. "Yeah, I guess."

"And you should know… the people there were injured pretty deeply. Physically and emotionally. Nobody deserved something like that, as you didn't either."

"…"

Hearing her, the red ruff stayed motionless staring off on the fruitless ground. Amidst his silence, he seemed to be recollecting his past actions. The Powerpuff peered over him intently, hoping he would link the situations together and feel the Townspeople's position. And thankfully, in a splendidly amazing process, the ruff closed his eyes and nodded to concede silently to her point. To the puff, that was a good enough answer for now.

"Thank you," she told him. "I know it mustn't have been easy."

She, in expanding content, diverted her glance from him and directed it to the sky. The stars were sparkling in tiny but brilliant hue.

"Look up at the stars," she said.

"What about it." The ruff mumbled sullenly. "I've seen it already."

The pink Powerpuff giggled at his mopey answer. "I know, but look again, silly."

At that, the Rowdyruff rolled his eyeballs, but complied with her request anyway. It in fact, was the same sky, though beautiful.

"You see them? They're pretty neat, right?" Blossom remarked in awe. "But they're all in different sizes, and depending on what kind of star they are, they send off a different color and intensity of light."

Brick scowled with little enthusiasm. "So? I don't get what the fuss is."

As she continued heartily, the Powerpuff girl's face shined bright from her surroundings; "What I'm saying is, it's you who can decide what kind of person you want to be, and what kind of light you want to emit. As a hero who fends for Townsville, I should probably tell you to become a good person, but honestly… you should be given the right to figure it out for yourself." The girl faced the boy with an encouraging smile. "I don't know what advice to give you in the current status you are right now, but… be true to who you are, instead of reflecting the light of _someone else's._ Those are not even called 'stars' in scientific terms. But keep in mind, there are a lot of people around you, just like the stars up there, who are also trying to make the best out of themselves, too. And if you choose to cross the line and become someone who hurts them," the girl winked at him slyly, "I'll have to kick your butt senseless."

During her bombardment of strange metaphors, Brick became befuddled to no end. Not at what she meant, but how she portrayed it. ' _Stars?' 'Kind of light you want to emit?'_

And the Powerpuff for a fact, was beaming at him expectantly. Before long, within her two pure doe-like orbs, the boy was swarming in a pool of glistening stars and the fervent flames of the fire. At its allurement, the Rowdyruff could almost feel his cheeks heating up... _because of the flames, of course!_

"You're such a nerd," he coughed out, reverting his gaze.

Her depictions were a bit too sappy for his taste, but it was to no question he appreciated it.

Be true to _who you are,_ instead of reflecting the light of _someone else's,_ huh? The keen boy knew all too well what she was referring to. But that advice was highly untenable at this point, unless…

Off the corner, the ruff pondered a few moments as he reached for something in the pocket of his pants. "I've got something to give you," he announced.

_Give her?_

Blossom lifted her head in curiosity. What Brick took out of his pocket was a small vial containing some questionable glowing liquid.

"Is that?"

"Yeah, this is the stuff."

Blossom stiffly took the liquid container when Brick handed it to her. She eyed him with uncertainty, "You want _me_ to take this?"

"That's the idea, yeah?" Brick looked at her slightly annoyed from repeating. "I was gonna give it to monkey, but… you know what happened."

"Okay, but um, why?"

"Well…" the Rowdyruff rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought somebody might be able to go through the contents of that stupid thing and figure out what kind of jig HIM is pulling."

The Powerpuff looked at the vial, and then at the boy amazed. He had the consciousness to escape with this material from HIM's lair?

"You smuggled this all by yourself?" she asked in a haze.

"Uh, _duh._ I'm the only one able to get away by pulling that sort of shady trick. Even my brothers don't know. Those barf-bags don't even realize anything wrong is going on!"

Blossom nodded in understanding, restoring composure. "Right, I'll take this for safe keeping and see if it can be scanned." She tucked the contents safely in her dress pocket.

"Don't _lose it."_ Brick growled in warning. "I went through loads of crap to get my hands on that darned thing!"

"I won't." The puff assured, "You must trust me a lot now, to entrust me with this thing right? I won't let that down."

Brick stiffened at her promise, and "hmph" was his answer that followed.

 _Whatever,_ it's just that he was smart enough to figure out that the puff was his best chance. Besides, by now he realized that his prior hatred towards the Powerpuffs was pretty stupid. Other than being annoying, they literally did nothing, really. That nasty red demon, he was the scoundrel behind this...

For a while, Brick and Blossom's exchange of words arrested, letting the wind of silence find its way back. That was until Blossom soon smirked over at him cheekily at a thought.

"But seriously, _wow._ You're quite the stealthy one aren't ya?"

The egotistic ruff for certain, could feel himself itching to boast at her compliment. Soon enough, the boy's lips curled up from her flattery.

"And _savvy,"_ he added in a whimsical manner. "What can I say, I was born this way, babe. Not even HIM can control that."

At his playful remark, Blossom simpered, then broke out in hearty laughter. For once, his mighty ego drew charming to her. _Who knew?_ And Brick as well, glimpsing toothily at her honest reaction, also tagged along and chuckled in correspondence.

The lightening of the atmosphere seemed to cause the fire in front of them to soar up in liveliness. In time, the super beings who had their share of laugh settled their leftover gusts of joy, and exchanged pleasant glances.

"I can't believe we were able to get away with Bubbles' undercover last time when you are actually this shrewd," Blossom commented.

The ruff's eyebrows waggled a little dance. "Hah! You wish! I actually already knew what was going on!"

"Oh, did you?"

"No, duh! It was _way_ too obvious! Don't know if Butch realized, but Boomer has a dumber voice than your sister. Gotta admit though, when she led us to your house and suddenly disappeared, I was confused and caught off guard for a moment seeing Boomer. Boy, do they look freakishly alike!"

"Yeah, we all look pretty similar." the puff agreed with a smile.

This was amazing. The way they were throwing playful banters at each other, how Brick looked excited to open up and share his story, how she got to know so much about his qualities… it was as if they both found a long lost friend, rather than being the enemies that they usually were.

"So, you actually made our sister believe you were fooled, then? Why? To find your brother?"

"Of course, isn't it obvious? And on another note, it _was_ pretty darn amusing seeing her struggle in disguise."

Well, that was kind of mean, but Blossom let it pass. After all, even Bubbles admitted it was a fun experience that time.

"Then that means, you were _worried_ for your brother, right? You care about those two."

Brick stopped in his playful manner to groan. _Those idiots..._ "I guess you could say that."

"Maybe you could go back and let them know that? They might understand. Maybe even feel the same way."

"…"

"I'll help?" Blossom offered.

_..Be true to who you are, instead of reflecting the light of someone else's._

Mulling over this pensively, Brick abruptly rose from his sitting. "Eh, maybe."

The ruff brooded off in space and noticed that the dim light in his cabin had completely extinguished. Curse that stupid oil lamp. Seems like there was no point in going back to that shabby place now.

Without a word, the ruff determinedly zipped towards the lodge and disappeared into its dark.

"Brick?" the confused puff called. But before she could hover over to check on him, Brick reappeared out of the entrance with broken furniture pieces in his hands.

"The fire's dyin'. Might as well make use of these, right? Since I won't need them anymore."

Instantly, the pink girl's face brightened in proud glee and relief. Seeing that, the boy also smirked at her in return.

The ruff flew over and the puff, too, helped him recover the faltering flames. Then, instead of sitting back on the log, the two supported their backs on the wood, returning to their chitchat.

Miraculously for the next few hours, the two conversed happily in front of the warm fire, under the twinkling watch of the stars. And as the night slowly grew older, and calming sleepiness befell among them, the puff was the first to doze off and lean her head against the boy's shoulder. The boy, after some sleepy attempts of his own to shake her awake, gave up and let her sleep, laying his own head comfortably on hers alike.

The stirring and whirs of the cool wind could no longer intrude their space of radiating warmth.

ㅡ

From afar, in the middle of nowhere, the exact visual of the two snoozing children filled the screen of an upside-down TV set floating in mid-air. Raging images of bloody hellfire and indistinct blurry voices in the distance revealed it to be the underworld. That instant, the screen at hand instantly gave way to static as a red demon-like presence smoldered in resentment on his armchair at the sight of it.

"Well, well," he sizzled in a dark voice. "Looks like I've let you have your freedom for too long, now haven't I?"

The red demon chuckled menacingly and gathered his large pincers together. "I should have known this was inevitable. Enjoy it while it lasts, child."

Breaking off to an ear-to-ear grin, the dreadful ambience of the realm boomed entirely with his new arrays of evil hysterical laughter.

"AHA-AHAHA-AHAHAHAHAHA!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, HIM found out. That can't be good.
> 
> And what ever happened to Buttercup and Bubbles? ;)


	9. The Calm Before the Storm (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Come on, we have to go inside more, or they'll find us."
> 
> But once the ruff saw where they were heading, he tore his arm from her grip and wrapped them around his knees in front of him.
> 
> "N-no way! You don't know what's in there! Y-you can't make me!"
> 
> Chattering his teeth, he rocked his body back and forth.
> 
> Bubbles silently watched him without judgment, and knelt down to gently place her hands on his cheeks. She turned his head towards her.
> 
> "I know it's scary… I'm scared too." She spoke calmly into his eyes. "But together, it won't be as bad, I promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to a blue and green chapter.
> 
> This part of the story however, became much longer and detailed than I had originally planned. :/ So although I tried my best to keep it into one chapter, it was becoming way too long and I decided to split it into two parts.
> 
> Also, this is the last remainder of my 'save' chapter imported from FF. So after this would be my real updates that I typed up-to-date.  
> Part 2 of this chapter has unfortunately not been completed yet. Darn midterms and college life!
> 
> I'll see when I can come back and update. :( Thank you for your patience!

" _Dammit!"_

Buttercup's outraged vocals stretched far into the darkness.

She hovered breathlessly over the border of the city skyline. But having no clue to where Blossom might have gone, she kicked her foot in thin air and slouched in vexation. Who knows how long it has been since she set sail?

She grumbled something inaudible and contracted her green pupils, carefully screening the overhead view of town with her night vision. Small lights from windows of yet sleeping town-folks decorated the nightscape, but Blossom's signature light was nowhere to be seen. Dejected and put out, the green puff let her eyes resume back to its normal state, but the rest of her expression sunk down from betrayal.

With everything coming to this, she just couldn't pull herself to absorb the situation. There was no denying that she and Blossom had come close to biting each other's head off over for the past crummy hours, but Buttercup had been so sure that Blossom would at some point come around her bossy brain and just admit she had been wrong for once.

 _As if._ The green puff grouched and folded her arms at the outcome.

Yeah, she _gets it_. Her leader _is_ usually the voice of reason when she tends to become an _instigator,_ as they put it _—what else was new?_ Even if that were true, what happened earlier was totally different! Her show of perhaps a bit 'reckless' rage back then was only from trying to protect her friend and citizens. As heroes, couldn't her pink sister understand that? She was there at the park, too. She saw what happened to Mitch! Sure, maybe she went a bit overboard when she chose to take her anger out on Blossom like that, but she honestly didn't mean to be so spiteful to her from the start...

If only Blossom had trusted and had appreciated her decisions more...

Burrowing her face into her palms, the green Powerpuff tried to muffle her stress and anger. _How could she do this to her?_

Now smart-girl had disappeared to find the red twerp without leaving so much of a word. How can she possibly reason her way out of this one? Whatever she had in mind, all Buttercup could conclude right now was that her leader deliberately went behind her back and toyed with her. Not all villains are _guilty,_ huh? Well was that all worth LYING FOR and BETRAYING the team?!

" _Aggghhhhh!"_

Rendering her past effort useless, Buttercup unleashed her screams out to the sky, making violent air-punches on top of her head. But her frustrated fit was short-lived as she winced upon an angry complaint of a citizen demanding her to quiet down.

Sighing, the green puff trained a hand down the front of her face and collected her tired self. Her stormy expression in due time changed into that of disappointment to questioning.

 _Hold on...? Why_ would Blossom ever _lie?_

At that, her features twisted in growing suspicion. Yeah, _why would she?_

Now that she calmed her nerves, she could tell how weird it was for her to do that. Blossom being bossy about her being right was nothing unusual, but _lying?_.. For those _punks?!_ —

Nononono...Buttercup shook her head and successfully dismissed the steam that was climbing back up her head. That didn't sound like Blossom at all. _Strange._ It's like she became another person...

… _! Wait a minute!_

Buttercup held down her bottom jaw at a chilling thought. _What if those dirt-bags did something to her?_

She bit the tip of her hand as she nervously sought through the possibilities. ...What if she was _possessed?_

_Oh shoot._

Her face hardened like cold cement. There was only one conclusion to this:

_HIM must have made their leader into a walking puppet!_

I mean, who was she kidding! Come to think of it, there was no way Blossom would fall for some dumb _boy_ and LIE about it, right?! At this very moment, those jerks might have her captured and Mojo could be brutally torturing her to give up Townsville!

An exaggerated illusion of a suffering Blossom hitched up as a lump in her throat. HIM and Mojo were lurking in the background; Blossom's hands were bound and a gag was across her mouth, all while twisted images of the Rowdyruffs sniggered and threatened to pour down a bucket full of revolting slime.

"Oh no, Blossom!" Buttercup shrieked in panic, her thought clouds disassembling. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo!"

The overly imaginative Powerpuff regretfully trailed her eyes down at her trembling palms for not listening to her leader's advice. Unlike moments ago, her face was engulfed with dread. How could she have not thought of this? She was so engrossed in her anger that she failed to think through and see other possibilities. In the worst case, they might all be waiting for her and Bubbles to come for her any second! She scrunched her eyes shut. Only regrets were left from the thoughts of their previous argument... First things first, she had to get her blue sister and let her know of this, too.

Uh-oh.

 _Bubbles!_ Buttercup directly yanked her palms up and smacked them onto her two cheeks in terror. _Oh no._ She left her alone, she might be in DANGER!

So after showing off a dramatic yet rather comical variation of expressions in a short period, the brute Powerpuff finally pieced her scattered brain back together. Turning back the way she came from, she was ready to-

"Heya, _whimper-_ puff."

-stay exactly where she was.

Before long, the puff wobbled forward from her arrested momentum as she almost came face-to-chest with someone in front of her. She groaned at the guiltless ground.

_Ugh, don't tell me it's porcupine-head..._

The green girl flipped her head back up.

Much to her hopes—porcupine-head, or Butch to be exact, was looming just over her eye level with eyebrows lowered tensely to form a scowl. The bitterness was apparent from their foregone fight—up to the extent that seconds ago he had brusquely woken up from her screams in his earshot, hustling over as fast as possible.

However, his reasons unbeknownst to the green puff, she jumped back and marked him with promising death, mistakenly thinking he had come to claim they had her sister. Looking around to find no red flags of an ambush, the puff narrowed her eyes and prepared for combat. This was probably for the better; he sure wasn't smart enough to come to her on his _own feet!_

"YOU." Her voice was low and gravelly when she readied herself.

"Yeah, remember me?" the antagonist greeted, "We have _unfinished business_. The round hasn't ended!"

His lame clarifications however, did not get past the barrier of her attention. Ignoring all nonexistent formalities, the puff pulled back and launched herself above his level.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?!"

"Wait, what?!"

Butch watched as her growing shadow cloaked over him. His surroundings dissolved to a blur as he was swooped down and thrashed on to the hard pavement.

ㅡ

Whimpers of a distressed Powerpuff resounded on the far side. Bubbles, in similar procedure, had long lost track of where Buttercup disappeared, and no doubt, the frightened Powerpuff was desperate to know what was going on. In the night of the sky, her eyes were rapidly welling up with large blobs of tears as her small frame shook frailly. Although she willed to stay strong, she always felt helpless in the darkness. She _knew_ it wasn't a good idea to leave the house! That was until-

" _Aggghhhhh!"_

Like a beacon in the night, her green sister's incensed cry blared in her ears as guidance.

Half glad, half worried, the Powerpuff blasted off to the direction, wasting no moment of indecision. But as soon as she was about to open her mouth to call for her sibling, she bumped full force into a floating object, knocking it back.

"Ow!" It yelped.

"Eeep!" The girl screamed, bracing herself. What did she get herself _into?_ A monster in the dark?!

But far from her fear, she peeked through her arms and perceived that the object was actually the blond ruff, completely flabbergasted and rubbing the sore shoulder that she collided into. If she hadn't mistaken, she thought she saw his face transform from total apprehension to slight reprieve.

His voice was raspy and shaky as he spoke, "W-watch where you're going, blondie! Sheesh! I was scared out of my wits!"

"Boomer…" Bubbles murmured in shining appreciation for his presence.

She took a moment of awe—then she entrapped the Rowdyruff in her arms. "Oh Boomer, I'm so glad it's you!"

"H-hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Having expected the least, Boomer's face flustered wildly as he wiggled in her tight hug to no avail. He only managed to escape and catch his breath when Bubbles freed her arms from his waist. Frazzled, the Rowdyruff worked his best to calm down his red-tinted cheeks as a prior feeling of wariness washed over him.

In the meantime, Bubbles wiped her eyes of the remainder of previous tears. Despite everything, her happy eyes glistened in the dark and studied the sight of her counterpart. Hmmm… He seemed a bit… _bothered?_

"What are you doing out here?" she posed curiously.

"W _-why should I answer that?!"_ the ruff's mouth sputtered like a lawn mower. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Bubbles hummed and offered him her answer, "Well, I was looking for my sister."

"Y-yeah! That's what I was doing, too! Looking for my sis- I mean _Butch_ , my _brother!"_

The blue ruff quivered and continued with his strange behavior. He anxiously surveyed the dark surroundings, as if frightened that anything would lunge out at him any moment. Bubbles looked at him quizzically. Then, gradual fascination seeped through her as she noticed how familiar his behavior was. She gasped and covered her mouth.

"Could it be that… you're scared of the dark, too?"

The Rowdyruff gawked at her guess, obviously giving it away.

"N-no! I'm not a crybaby like you!" He attempted to dart his eyes elsewhere, but _dang it!_ —she was giving him that sympathetic knowing look again!

Shriveling in mortification, the boy came to a barely audible whisper, "Y..yeah. You better not tell anybody."

...Because _god forbid_ his brothers found out about this! He'd be marked as a _sissy_ for life!

The blond ruff trembled uneasily while the puff searched him with deep concern, her innocent eyes once again succumbing to sorrow. In his blue cloudy orbs, she saw herself moments ago mirroring his actions, and their similarity of fears. She wrung her hands together and let her sad eyes roam around for a while. Aside from the relief she felt for finding someone who was also afraid of the dark, she should probably try to appease him.

The blue puff re-locked her eyes on him, voicing out softly, "It's okay to be afraid," she said, "because deep down that's what makes you stronger... After all, being brave isn't about not being afraid of anything. It's about doing what you're afraid to do." **(A/N: episode** _ **'boogie frights'**_ **)**

Still, the blue ruff as well as his blond curls persisted to quiver in front of her eyes. The puff hesitated, but reached comfortingly to lightly stroke the end strands of his messy hair.

This was what the Professor sometimes demonstrated as a remedy to soothe her when she was really afraid. She would snuggle deep into his arms and seek haven from having somebody beside her.

Also, she had admitted to her sisters before that Boomer was cute. Observing the golden locks of hair similar to hers, she would at times lose her attention to them during battles. This, henceforth was easily on the list of what she always wanted to do. It was… _soft._

"Wha..what are you doing?"

The blue ruff pulled back a few times to resist her touch, but with not much resolve.

He in the end sighed and stayed put. Again, the Powerpuff was bewitching him with her girly magic. But graciously so, her delicate words brought about a peaceful tune that appeased the storm of anxiety inside him. As it did to the Powerpuff, having someone else's presence close by brought him at comfortable ease.

Still playing with his hair, Bubbles hummed softly between her giggles, "So, did you find your brother yet?"

Boomer looked at her and shook his head, "Nuh-uh."

"Me neither. Do you think maybe they've met?"

_BOOM!_

Both of them flung forward from a thunder of explosion.

Without a second to spare, the two children cried frantically and dashed away to an open window of a random building. The inside was dark, but that hardly mattered to them. They rushed in and sprawled themselves on the floor, dragging their backs to a partition. They huffed heavily, eyes locked on the window.

It was smart of them, for not long after, hues of glowing green whooshed by the building and crashed elsewhere outside. Sounds of tumbling debris and the set off of car alarms reverberated throughout the atmosphere from their wake. Though what felt like a painstakingly slow process, the quakes gradually weakened and distanced away from their point radius. A few tense moments—and detecting the coast clear, the two blonds wiped the beaded droplets of sweat on their forehead.

"Well that answers our question," Bubbles exhaled. "Do you think we'll ever get to tell them… about us?"

"Hopefully _never."_ Boomer panted in shock.

The blue girl let out another breath and cupped her face to the side in worry. She listened closely to the fierce battle taking beyond the framework of the building.

What Boomer said would be ideal in the short run—but if they kept this going, their siblings were going to find out sooner or later. Not only that, she really didn't like keeping things secret as if she was doing something wrong. How _wrong_ could it be to hang out with one of her sworn enemies—who as a team are evenly matched to her siblings and come closest to, defeating…them?

Okay, putting it that way didn't seem too justifiable.

"It's even… d-darker in here."

At the ruff's trembling voice, Bubbles flicked her vision over to her counterpart and saw that he had regressed back to his unstable state.

She snapped out of it—her peripherals quickly scanned the place they got themselves in, acknowledging a step too late of its lack of lighting. She gulped in fright. They seemed to be in an office but she could hardly tell. Turning the lights on however, might draw unwanted attention from their siblings.

She stood up and timidly raised her head over the partition she was leaning on. Her pupils panned on the deeper side of the room, but she couldn't muster enough courage to use her night vision. Obviously, it was completely dark, possibly darker than where they were sitting, but that part of the room was likely shielded better from view.

Even so… though her instincts told her nothing was lurking beyond, It was... scary.

Then came another blast of eruption.

Before any of them could process this, with gaining force, their siblings whipped dangerously close past the window. … _Too close._

Bubbles just in time turned to see the window in front of them completely shatter from the shockwaves of their passage; Boomer yelled and jumped into her arms in a cradling position; small pieces of glass sprinkled on the ground before them—then silence. Boomer realized his position and embarrassedly ripped himself away.

Bubbles shivered and shook her head after examining the damage. Luckily, Butch and Buttercup seemed to have passed by without them going noticed. But they had to move further in or risk being a dead giveaway. In rising resolve, she took hold of Boomer's arm and tugged on it to lead him deeper.

"Come on, we have to go inside more, or they'll find us."

But once the ruff saw where they were heading, he tore his arm from her grip and wrapped them around his knees in front of him.

"N-no way! You don't know what's in there! Y-you can't make me!"

Chattering his teeth, he rocked his body back and forth.

Bubbles silently watched him without judgment, and knelt down to gently place her hands on his cheeks. She turned his head towards her.

"I know it's scary… I'm scared too." She spoke calmly into his eyes. "But together, it won't be as bad, I promise."

She pulled her hands away and gestured him her palm to grab onto. She smiled affectionately, "Trust me."

Boomer looked at her hand, and then back at her face. He could notice she was frightened too, but somehow she remained calm and composed. Even with her fear, she looked very brave to him.

The ruff suddenly felt ashamed and blushed furiously.

He thought of how dumb he might look like right now. Man, he did not EVER EVER EVER want to show this wimpy side of him to his insensitive brothers. They would be losing it altogether by now. But more so, he shouldn't be showing this part of him to any of his enemies—much less the Powerpuff in front of him.

Yet, she has already seen so much of his weak side than anyone else, but has never once made him feel bad about it.

Boomer felt his hands capturing his legs lose its strength.

To her, …maybe it would be okay. She had proved to him that she won't make a laughing stock out of him. And he had this gut feeling that if he just followed her words, she would make him feel calmer and braver again... like she did earlier that afternoon. He smiled meekly. Props to her girly magic.

So he took her hand, and hoisted himself up on his feet as she led him the way into the unknown.

ㅡ

"Where's my sister?! TELL ME, NOW!"

Buttercup quickly soared and dived down to force Butch to ground level. But Butch wasn't falling for that again.

"For the last time, I don't have your stupid sister!" He swerved out of the way, leaving Buttercup with handfuls of air, still heading downwards. Their position switched; Butch now atop of her and gathering energy at a focal point to strike her down.

Making note of this, Buttercup immediately accrued more speed to reach the pavement faster. She did a flip and let the blast of energy strike just behind her as she landed on her feet, skidding to a touchdown with a long gash on the ground. She erupted back upwards and sent a fusillade of eye-lasers darting his way, barely giving passage for him to escape.

Before he knew it, the green puff was back to his altitude. Butch who didn't have time to spare from evading her lasers became susceptible to her blows. He threw his arms up to block her attacks, but her final body-blow to the stomach shot him backwards. He crashed into a row of streetlights, one by one, and reached a ringing stop back-first on a wide street sign.

He lowered himself and witnessed the lights in front of him in disarray. He growled at the reminder of a past event.

"How do you do that?!" He exclaimed, floating upwards.

"Do what?!"

Buttercup sprung her body to work, her arms out in the open to grab him. Butch saw this, and brought his arms in front of him to meet hers. The weight of the collision tilting sidewards, the two spun around in increasing speed. In the thick of their spinning tornado, Butch stirred and raised his voice,

"How does a wimp like you become stronger even when we take one of you losers down?!"

"What the heck are you talking about?!"

"I hurt someone special to you! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BREAK DOWN AND SOB LIKE A LITTLE PRINCESS!"

Butch used their spinning force to his advantage and threw her into a building. Wisps of smoke arised from the impact, but not for long.

"DON'T YOU GET IT?!"

Shaking herself out from the debris, Buttercup felt the haste to get his repeating question out of the way.

"IT'S EXACTLY BECAUSE THEY'RE SPECIAL TO ME!" she put forth, "I told you I care about them! They give me the _purpose_ to fight—more the reason to get up on my feet!" Her irises shined bright green in the dark as residues of dust cleared around her. She stood up resolutely, reenacting her figure of speech.

Butch looked at her petrified. His stomach churned at the mention of the word _care_ ; prior day incidents, confrontations, they all relapsed on him like a panoramic sequence. He earned a headache, but he stirred his head, pulling himself together.

"That's gotta be the most pathetic trash I've ever heard!" he cried.

Buttercup jeered in mockery, "Speak for yourself, dingbat! You're no _real_ fighter, you've got no reasons of your own to fight!" She eyed him with sly confidence, "You're just a convenient _errand boy_ for HIM to toy around with!"

That did it for the green boy.

 _"I DO have a reason to fight!"_ he roared, "I fight to DESTROY _YOU!"_

 _"Why?_ Cuz your _daddy_ told you?"

Butch charged towards his waiting counterpart with an outcry of fury.

They met with a loud collision; the building wrecked by Buttercup before became open to more destruction. The two battling super humans subsequently blew out from the other side, driving their colors to lace around and draw apart for several turns.

After exchanging multitudes of relentless attacks, Buttercup was the one to sock it to him last and body-check him out of the sky, into an array of skyscrapers. She paid attention to the broken skyline, unsure where he will come out next and jump at her. But in the middle of her precaution, she paused and stared questioningly at a distinct smoke rising from far out of the city. _Was that smoke there before?_

She blindly countered an attack from her male aggressor that came from the side. The puff once again knocked him away, all the while keeping her eye fixed on the suspicious smoke.

She cocked her head, managing to pull her distracted mind away from the battleground with Butch.

Something wasn't right. Spike-head really did seem ignorant of where her sister was. And—like she found out earlier—his brick-face brother for that matter, too. Was there truly no plot against them? Their red siblings just _disappeared together?_

Anger inscribed itself all over her face. _She was right the first time!_

The green girl approached closer to the faraway scene to view it over the skyline. It came from the outerside of the city—in _fuzzy's forest!_

"Take this, sissy!"

Just when Buttercup was about to head out to investigate, the green ruff returned with an attempted spike, but instead took a hit in the face. Buttercup shoved him away with her kick as he was now driven out of her interest. She growled and looked his way,

"If you really don't have Blossom with you, then I'm wasting my time here!" She raced towards the direction of the forest.

"Wait, where do you think you're going?!"

Butch gained up on her and blocked her in her path, but Buttercup deflected and headed forward. Infuriated by her outright neglection, the green ruff sped up and successfully slammed her into a wall of an edifice.

"You're not gonna bail on this fight again!" He took her by the neck and bashed her on the brick wall over and over. "I'm not letting you sissy your way out of this!"

Midway through another thrash, Buttercup came around from the onslaught and kicked him in the groin, causing the boy to let go and writhe in pain.

She straightened up, and held nothing back when she spat full-fire in his face; "I'M DONE WITH YOU! I don't care whether it's _Blossom_ or _BRICKFACE_ in that forest! I'm getting to them, and I'M PUMMELING THEM LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW!"

The headstrong girl soared sharply to the sky, before pausing and hurtling towards the established location. Her mind was set in obliterating that red criminal now. He hurt her _FRIEND_ , he hurt her _CITIZENS_ , and he somehow lured her _SISTER_ into his dirty scheme!

Incensed, she motored up for more speed—that was until a flash of light captured her and smashed a ray of energy onto her body. She screamed and tumbled all the way down until she hit the road. Green smoke dissipated, and in its place, the puff coughed out of her crater, ending her experience with the asphalt.

She looked up to find herself in the green ruff's shadow. His dark eyes were glimmering green with newly lit determination.

"Listen sissy-pants," he stepped forward, "I can't care less about what you do over there. But if it's my _brother_ you're looking for, then you'll have go through _me_."

 _"What?!"_ Buttercup got up and stared aghast at his complete change of behavior.

Butch smirked under the moonlight, "Guess I do _care_ sometimes, huh?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll leave it with Butch's line here.
> 
> Hopefully I'll see you soon!


	10. The Calm Before the Storm (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stunned witness brought his dropped jaw back up and trotted close behind her.
> 
> "Dang puff, you still got it in ya?"
> 
> "You still gonna follow?" Buttercup eyed him irritably.
> 
> "Well, of course. Gotta make sure you don't mess with my brother," he said casually.
> 
> Buttercup stopped to glare at him. "And what's stopping me? I can still manage to make you join those goons over there."
> 
> "And I can still manage to wake up the whole neighborhood." Butch countered.
> 
> Darn it, Buttercup cursed inwardly. He was smarter than he looked at this game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The life of a junior in college...
> 
> Me: It's been an eternity since I've gotten to write my fic. I reeeeally should get done with the next chapter.
> 
> Assignments (x100): Nope.
> 
> Me: But-
> 
> Lab report (x100): Nope.
> 
> Me: Fine, I'll do it after-
> 
> Midterms (critical): Nope.
> 
> Essays (lethal): Nope.
> 
> Me: I-
> 
> Finals (fatal): Nope.
> 
> Life (x100000): Nope.
> 
> Universe (x10000000...): Nope.
> 
> Me: NGAAAAAHHHHHHH!
> 
> Internship: Heya, I'm here to greet you, too!
> 
> ㅡ
> 
> Hello, everyone. I know the above excuse cannot become an entire exoneration for the long absence I've given you. Please don't think that's what I'm getting at... 
> 
> I really thought what I was up for was what I could handle. :/ And here I am, during finals, picking the most unproductive time of the year to want to finish this chapter.
> 
> Winter break is coming up afterwards, and that's when it's prime season to upload. But I'm scared to make any promises...
> 
> But for what it's worth, this is how the greens and blues chapter come to an end. Apologies for the wait..

Two cautious silhouettes walked side by side in close range, feeling their way through the walls.

During their green siblings' preoccupied bloody warfare, Bubbles and Boomer managed to not only surpass the deeper side of their previous room, but also fully venture their way out to a long corridor. Wherever it led to, it again became an entirely new challenge.

The light tappings of their footsteps echoed one after the other. Neither of them dared to let out a breath too loud. Though if they did, they were definitely close enough to feel each other's presence. The dark made them unaware, but the trust they built was growing by the second. Not only from their coordinated steps or physical distance but mostly from their still tightly gripped hand in each other's.

It grew on the girl first out of the two. The blue girl was after all, the one who was more confident of this plan from the start. Her counterpart on the other hand, was a little reluctant.

"..Still could use some light in here..."

The blue boy mumbled when they got past the end of the long hallway. At that time Bubbles was already opening a door to a new room. Boomer offhandedly squeezed her hand in apprehension.

Bubbles stopped and took a moment to feel his beating pulse. She reciprocated the action whilst smiling. Then she considered his longing, thinking of a way to attend to his wish as well as give him some courage too.

"Boomer, remember that one time you made that bat out of electricity during our fights?" She asked softly.

"Yeah... but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You can make other things, right? Can you make something to light this room?"

"Wha- Right now?"

Bubbles nodded quietly in the dark. She had a feeling Boomer could still sense it.

Boomer numbly took in her message and minded the circumstances before he replied, "I think so, but..." he paused as his throat turned dry. "When I'm scared, I can't... do so well..." he confessed.

The boy's shaky hand backed away. Her hand was everything he had in this spooky place, but right now, what the Powerpuff thought of him mattered more.

At this point though, it was plain silly for the ruff to even think otherwise. Before he could get any wistful ideas, Bubbles gently caught on to his retracting hand.

"Come on, Boomer. You can do it." She faced herself toward him. "You just gotta believe in yourself."

Boomer blinked at the contact and traced her outlines until he reached her eyes. Everything was pitch black, except for her blue starlights vibrantly shining on to him.

The blue boy swallowed as his cheeks bloomed pink. He mentally hoped for the dark to cloak the color as he bashfully pulled away and gathered his hands in front of him. He took a deep breath and concentrated.

Sparks entangled at the tip of his hands— _a light crackle_ —then intense light washed over his palm-made horizon before it materialized into a small yellow light bulb fitting the size of his palms. Their nearby surroundings came into fair view from the brightness.

Bubbles let out a gasp.

"You did it!" she cheered.

Boomer himself was amazed. He grinned sheepishly, wondering if anyone had ever been so glad for his achievements.

He was then met with another gasp.

Boomer followed his counterpart's stunned gaze to see what caught her interest. By the time he realized, he was overwhelmed by—

_Toys... rows and mountains of toys..._

For a while, the two blues seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. Of course out of all places, they had coincidentally stepped right into a room full of Townsville's... _toy factory stock._ Their enthusiasm started to bulge out from their barely contained lips.

"Oh my gosh-"

"This is the awesomest-EVER!"

The two wasted no time over to the shelves full of merchandise; toy guns, cars, blocks, dolls... every plaything they could have ever imagined shimmered before their eyes. If there was heaven, this just had to be it.

"Oooooh! _Bunny-Bunny!"_ Bubbles cried in between her leaps. What she found on the shelf was her favorite super hero plushie from a comic strip.

Boomer paused as she rushed to hug the doll in her arms. He scoffed. _Sheesh,_ what is it with girls and dolls?

He shook his head dismissively, but funnily enough, he too was stumped when he soon found something on the same aisle that caught his eye.

" _Whoa,_ look!"

The boy called over to Bubbles, eagerly pointing towards a particular plush doll. It had an adorable rabbit-like appearance covered entirely in short yellow fur and black markings. The shape of its tail indicated that it harnessed the power of electricity.

"No way, you know G _okemon?!"_ Bubbles gaped at him.

"Well duh, who wouldn't?!" he bounced back.

The blue boy's excitement was no different from Bubbles'. He immediately diffused the light bulb in his hand and reassembled it to make it look exactly like the game character with electric powers. It glistened with a hint of yellow sparks.

Bubbles again, wildly applauded his craftmanship. She leant in to examine the object closer.

"You have a real special power, Boomer." She told him.

Boomer looked surprised. "I do...?"

"Of course you do. It's something I can't do. It's- really cool." With that, the blue girl inclined her head and flashed her sweet smile at the doubtful boy.

Boomer's heart skipped a beat.

...Did she just call him _cool?!_

Boomer's cheeks burned as he suddenly felt lightheaded. The flustered boy felt his legs buckle as he lost his balance and clumsily stumbled upon one of the shelves.

"Are you okay?!" Bubbles cried worriedly. But Boomer was perfectly fine, that was until one of the toys wobbled dangerously and fell off, striking him straight on the top of his head.

"Yow!" He jolted. He traced his eyes towards the object that hit him.

It was a gigantic nerf gun made out of plastic.

—!

After a moment of thinking, Boomer grinned evilly at the item. Only someone stupid wouldn't know what _that_ meant.

Clearing the red hue on his face, Boomer did the one thing he was good at when he tried to cover up his embarrassment;

 _It was TIME_ _TO RUMMMMMMMMMBLE_ — _!_

Swiftly, the Rowdyruff dropped his electric light on the tiles to roll over toward the weapon, swooping it up to a kneeling position. He held his target at gunpoint.

"Eat this, fiend!"

"Huh?!"

Straight away, rubber bullets blasted from his weapon, flying right towards the unprepared Powerpuff. Bubbles hastily arched her back backwards and dodged the barrage of bullets, but when she used the tip of her hand to swing herself back upwards, a leftover fire smacked right onto her lips. She frowned and plopped the rubber material off of her face.

"Aggh, _Boomer!"_

Her aggressor merely gave a satisfied chortle and reloaded his ammunition.

Not as lucky this time, Boomer missed Bubbles by a second who quickly took cover behind the next shelves before his row of nerf bullets fired away. She agilely darted, high jumped, and did cartwheels to avoid the darts slipping past the gap between the displays. Toys just behind her heels knocked over or became subject to its vacuum, until finally, the nimble acrobat slid her foot along the floor to a stop as she reached the edge of the aisle, hiding herself from his range of view.

"Oh, _it's on."_ She declared.

She took a quick grab of two of the guns on the shelf for her take of offense. She loaded one in each hand and hurled herself out of her shelter, firing a slew of mini projectiles over to her opponent. The Rowdyruff ducked flat on the ground, bullets missing just over his head.

"Hey, not fair!" He objected, spotting her advantage in arsenal. But he smirked playfully as he jumped back up, obviously enjoying the added mix of fun.

Despite the slight remains of darkness, the two superbeings forgot about their initial fears and fully indulged in their new game. All the dark did now was amplify their fun. Several turns went about in their exhilarating battlefield, and after finishing their ongoing match, the two playmates ultimately sprawled out exhaustedly on the floor, gurgling with hysteric laughter.

"Oh man, hahahahha oh _shucks_ , that was- that was absolutely _BRUTAL!"_ Boomer wheezed between his cackles.

"I know!" Bubbles coughed and followed suit, "It was so much fun!"

Before long, their last bursts of mirth dissolved into calm quietness. They sat up from their post, marveling at the honorary aftermath littered entirely with ejected nerf bullets.

"We have to clean this up later you know," Bubbles brought up cheekily.

"Wha-really?!"

Boomer snapped his head towards her in genuine horror. His face had reluctance written all over it. The blue girl could only laugh lightheartedly at his innocence before she inched closer to him. "Nah, just this once, we could make it a secret," she relented.

It didn't take too long for her to notice that he had warped his self-sustaining electric light back into his hands.

"So," she placed herself beside him and nodded at his character lamp, "you know Gokemon, huh?"

"...Mhmm?" Boomer wondered where this was going.

"Have you watched any more shows on TV?"

Her question seemed to have hit the Rowdyruff right on the spot.

"Boy, _have I!_ "

The blue boy excitedly listed the broadcasts he saw on TV. While he was stuck down at HIM's lair with his brothers, that was pretty much all they were restricted to for fun other than video games. He talked about animes, shows, movies; even the ones that his brothers thought were to mooshy to watch.

Bubbles appreciated him opening up and listened intently. Her eyes sparkled at an idea; "You wanna look around some more to see if we can find more toys of the shows you watched?

Boomer jumped up before responding. "Cool!"

The two moved on to poke around the stock room, remarking with small _ooh_ s and _ahh_ s whenever they saw merchandise that they liked. They seemed to share some similar tastes.

After a while they both reached an entire row full of action figures.

"Cool! The _Scavengers!"_ Boomer exclaimed in awe.

As he hiked up his light source to take a closer look at them, Bubbles wrinkled her brows at the obvious sense of discrepancy.

"You watch... _superhero_ movies?"

_...!_

The air around the boy stilled to ice, realizing how he slipped up again like a dingus. He bit the end of his tongue and stole a careful glance at her. She was waiting.

He groaned and didn't even bother to conceal his frustrated gestures.

Panicking, the boy sucked his lost voice back with his breath. "W-what about it?! HIM always showed those stupid shows so we can _laugh at it!"_

"Oh... _"_ The puff's voice deflated.

The boy's heart sunk from it. _This was not what he wanted!_ _Was it?_

"Nonono I mean- I mean- ya know, uhh- that _dusnt_ mean I _do not_ mean that they're _not not_ cool!"

"..."

Bubbles had to stare and get her head around what she just heard.

"So... does that mean you think they're cool?"

"...Uh...do I? I think so..?"

"You do?!"

Boomer flinched and fumbled his hands all over his night lamp from her overturned expectanct voice. The answer that he blundered out was certainly true, but he didn't know how to deal with the ray of hopes she was emitting.

"W-well, that doesn't mean I would ever want to be a superhero!" he shrugged defensively, "I-I mean, I saw you fight and it was cool and all— _doh!_ I mean, _just a little bit!_ But I would never want to be like you!"

There was a stretched silence.

Boomer slapped his forehead with his free hand as he realized he dug a deeper grave.

Bubbles watched him fidgeting about on his own and simpered. She smiled a gentle smile as she quirked a curious eyebrow.

"Why not?"

_Oh no._

_"Because..!"_ He stopped. A loose sweat dripped down his forehead and gathered at his chin. He steadied himself. "Because, _I'm a bad guy!_ And bad guys... are supposed to be bad, right?!" He searched her for comfirmation.

"Well... why are you such a _bad bad boy_ , Boomer?" Bubbles giggled, almost teasingly.

Boomer drew his eyes at her blankly, at a loss of words. "Umm..." he tried. "Because being bad is... cool!"

Bubbles played his logic in her head. She batted her eyelashes innocently and tested out her next question. "Didn't you just say _seeing me fight_ was cool, too?"

It was plainly easy to watch her counterpart become undone from blushing. She giggled. _Boys are adorable..._

But that aside, it was now the Powerpuff's turn to be a little bashful. Her small lips inched up and projected her hopes to befriend him.

"Can't you be good sometimes, too?"

The ruff recovered from his previous state.

Be good?

He slowly went over the words he was trained to be disgusted at.

Do something nice, and like, _help_ people?

He shook his head.

No way. That's what sissies do, right? He never in his life did anything goo-

Wait.

The boy dropped his lamp. It shattered into little sparks and was swallowed up by the dark.

The boy drew a breath. He _did_ do something good, he reminded himself. Back at the fast food chain he definitely did save the fry cook dude, didn't he? He let himself shrug it off after that—or rather, he kind of forgot—but at that time he was so scared that he might be going _bonkers!_

"Boomer?"

Called boy shifted his eyes to the direction his counterpart would be. The Powerpuff... She was probably looking at him again with those puppy-dog eyes of worry. And that didn't really sit well with him.

_Should he tell her?_

He wanted to, actually.. It was a weird stunt he'd never pulled before, and he itched to tell somebody about it to lift the weight off of his chest.

He could hear the back of his head screaming at him to go for it. Why not. Who else could he tell? His _brothers?_

He shuddered at the thought.

_...Nope, ain't that gonna happen._

Making up his mind, the blue boy regenerated his light bulb. His counterpart recoiled a little at the unwarned exposure of light.

"I gotta tell you something!" He forwarded. His expressions were decisive as he faced her.

Bubbles' features rised inquisitively. "What is it?"

"Back at the burger place, I- I did something funny!"

"Funny?" She repeated.

"Yeah, I... well, I actually did something good!"

"Oh?"

"I saved a guy from almost getting fried from _flying potatoes!"_

"...?"

Her facial expression said it all that she was completely lost. Boomer scratched his head and tried again.

"Ya know.. back at that burger shack? This dude was about to get dunked on with hot fries, so I yanked him outta the way and saved his butt."

"You did what?!" Bubbles exclaimed. "But... _why?"_ She gazed at him in shock then shook her head. "I mean that's great.. awesome! But I thought you went in there to steal all their burgers and beat them up!"

"I wasn't gonna beat 'em up!" Boomer stated defiantly. He chewed the inside of his cheek and mumbled, "As long as they gave me what I wanted..."

He stared afar and rubbed his neck in thought.

"I dunno.. It happened all so fast. I know I'm a doofus, but I knew it was sure gonna hurt a lot. And before I knew it, I was throwin myself at him..."

"..."

The blue girl nodded comprehendingly. She decided not to ask anymore questions.

She was still unsure of the specifics, but none of that mattered. Why would there be any question needed in saving someone?

What now mattered to her was that he did something heroic. Though it was one small act, he proved to be somebody with a heart. And this made things clear; he might as a Rowdyruff done some bad things, but he wasn't somebody she had to take forever as an enemy.

Bubbles reached closer to Boomer.

"First of all, you're not a doofus."

The ruff couldn't help but perk up to look at her with a grin. Bubbles smiled.

"And see? You _can_ be good at times." She gave him a light pat on the back. "It felt good, didn't it?"

Boomer laughed bashfully. "Yeah..." His chest fluttered. "...It did."

There was calm quietness for a while as Boomer relaxed in his spot. In front of his chest, his electric powers glowed brighter than ever.

"Hey," he initiated. "I have something else to tell you."

"What is it?"

The puff was curious as to what else he was willing to reveal.

The blue ruff's eagerness transpired through his powers.

"Remember what you told me? That I gotta stand up for myself in front of my brothers? Well I did." He said proudly.

"Really?!"

Bubbles' eyes of admiration filled Boomer's chest with haughtiness.

"Yeap, I showed him alright." He boasted, wind coming out of his nose. "I got Butch on his knees begging me to forgive him! Boy, he looked stupid!" The ruff pointed his nose up high in the air to laugh, clearly exaggerating. "I just can't wait until I show Brick, too!"

Hearing this, Bubbles on the other hand, took his words seriously. Though she was glad, she went through some trains of thought.

"That's great, Boomer... but..." The light in her eyes slightly faded. "They're your brothers. You should still try to get along with them, even if they're mean to you sometimes..."

The blue girl looked away with a self-deprecating smile, reminded how she herself failed to sort it out with Buttercup.

Boomer took her wry expression solely as concern for him, and quickly dropped his pride to clear things up. "No it's not what you think-! It's... Butch and I, we're cool now! And we like- even promised to look for Brick tomorrow! He kind of... disappeared you know."

Bubbles, already aware of the news about Brick disappearing, nodded quietly. "So... no more fighting?"

"Yeah-I mean _no!_ No more fighting."

"That's good. I'm glad for you." She smiled calmly, hoping on one hand it could be the same for her too. She took a look at the shelves filled with toys. "Yeah, just, don't let them toy with you again. Because you're not one. You're not a toy."

_You're not a toy..._

"Right." Boomer replied. Something slightly ignited in his head to relate her words to a situation other than his brothers, but it faded.

With another quietness closing in, Bubbles rocked her feet on to her heels and back to the front.

"So, do you want to hear the time when I faced _the_ _boogie man?"_ She suggested. She did promise him more stories after all.

Boomer looked both shocked and excited at her conversation turner.

"You. fought. da boogie-man?!"

"You heard it right."

"I really gotta hear this!"

In a moments notice, the blues gathered an armload of toys off the shelves as they situated themselves for a spooky story. Boomer's power light in the meantime became an excellent subsitute for a glowing night light.

While they were at it, Bubbles listened to catch on to any kind of update from Buttercup, but her side of the battle seemed to have died down. The blue puff was not sure if she should be relieved or worried for her sister. She felt cowardly for not confronting her. Whatever had happened, she could handle herself... right?

ㅡ

Facing off a hard battle in the air, Buttercup found the time to shake away the exhaustion that was now constantly creeping up on her. She was honestly growing tired of this pointless fight. She could just as well be facing Blossom and that red twit by now, but _no,_ this stupid blockhead had to waltz his way in and ruin everything!

Speaking of which, the green puff just barely evaded another incoming punch from her attacker and head-butted him backwards. Her attacks were progressively becoming more and more defensive as she mostly dodged or shielded herself from his later attacks. Said attacker scowled and persistently bulldozed back in, finally jabbing her in the midsection. Right as she let out a choked breath, he mercilessly blasted her to the side of a building, forming a large rubble along with billows of smoke.

Inside the mushroom of dust, Buttercup groaned in pain and felt her body giving out. The green girl closed her eyes and wondered if things would end quietly if she just stayed still in this pile of debris.

She thought of Blossom. Regardless of her idiocy to go find brickhead, she still might have been tricked and put to danger. And Bubbles... was she safe?

The last thing that provoked her was the irksome taunting ringing over her ears.

"Is that all you got, Power _puke?!"_

Buttercup shot her eyes back open. The green clad girl extricated herself from the pile, revealing her garment in a sooty mess. Her opponent smirked dementedly, almost seeming to have been disappointed if she hadn't bounced back up.

Throughout the battle, Butch had come to abandon most of his anger from earlier and actually enjoy this form of battle. Adrenaline flowed through him as he experienced a new feeling of strength. So this is what it felt like, huh? To _fight for somebody_ or whatever? _Interesting…_

He twitched excitedly and charged towards his opponent. Buttercup took off too, blowing off the soot stuck to her clothes. Two lines of greens rapidly closed in to meet their likewise nearing counterpart on the opposite si-

"CAN'T YOU TWO DO THIS IN THE MORNING?!"

Both superbeings pulled back before reaching any contact. They looked up nonplussed.

An angry citizen was shaking his fist in the story of an apartment above them. Soon enough, windows of various buildings lit up as others poked their heads out and screamed similar complaints to quiet down and let them sleep. Butch growled as he obviously didn't enjoy their intruding protests.

"Shut up you little-!"

Buttercup clapped his mouth shut with her hand and stopped him from spitting anything inappropriate.

"Sorry folks. We'll end it here." She waved to the unamused crowd apologetically.

Ignoring the muffled screams of her counterpart beating on her other hand, she yanked him down to a dark alley below. Once their feet touched the ground, Butch kicked himself loose and turned to face her.

"What gives?!"

"Quiet, you!" Buttercup hissed through her gritted teeth. "This idiocy stops here! We're gonna wake up the whole town!"

The unplacated boy was well enough to argue what that had to do with anything, when he stopped to grin slyly at his advantage.

"So you admit your _defeat?"_ he dared.

Buttercup slapped her palm to her forehead. "Yeah sure, whatever, have it."

Butch flipped out in victory, pouncing up and down, but ceased as he saw her turn around and move forward. He frowned. "Where you going?"

"Where else? I'm getting to the bottom of this."

Butch chuckled, knowing exactly what she meant. "Oh no you don't."

The green boy slammed into her side pinning her against the street wall. He snickered psychotically. "Forgetting something? Let's see you try and _go through me!"_

His body convulsed due to overly high-strung nerves, waiting expectantly for her to counterattack; but Buttercup did nothing other than growl under her breath. The green ruff raised his brow at her lackluster response, and pulled back to search her face. He was taken aback at her lifelessness.

"Whoa dude," his deranged smile erased as he retreated. "You look like death."

Buttercup frowned. "Any other insults you want to share?"

"No, I mean really." Butch rolled his eyes, settling his previous mood. "What's with you? First you go all crazy savage mode and now _this?"_ He cracked up in amusement. "Did I really knock you around _that_ bad?"

"Don't get all smug." She snapped. "I'd strike you down in an instant _if it weren't for that stupid monster earlier..."_ Her later phrase mitigated into mumbles.

Butch's eyes eased up as he in retrospect, brought himself to remember the gigantic creature he heard her battling during his lunch... even through dinner. The heck? Did she even get to _have anything?_

Her stomach bellowed in timely fashion. Buttercup huffed embarrassedly. "Didn't get to chow down anything either."

Butch leant back and folded his arms. "Hah, excuses."

Unlike the words he formulated, the spiked-head boy surveyed her fatigued state and began to assess the amount of punishment she went through.

Wow… she really got dished out didn't she? It almost came close to the intensive training sessions he had down at HIM's lair, though he was not too fond of the recollection. Hmm.. come to think of it, she went through all those hours of battling, and still managed to hold up a fight against him, right? The boy was secretly impressed.

Buttercup noticed him staring her down. "So what now? You gonna strike an enemy when she's down?"

Butch snorted. It wasn't fun anymore with her battered up like a ragged doll. "I've got other priorities," he said. He would claim his actual victory when this sissy was up for a real fight. He could take her anytime anyway. After what she put towards their battle earlier to excite him, what fun was it if he took her down easily now?

The tired girl grunted as she pushed herself away from the wall. She wobbled her way forward, moving along the alley.

It was now Butch's turn to stare at her aghast. She was still set on finding them? _In that condition?_

The way she was struggling in her steps was… pitiful, really.

"Look…"

Just as Butch extended his arm forward to tap her shoulder, footsteps echoed from the darkness ahead. The two greens stood by confusedly as they noticed several other green figures of different sizes approaching from the other side of the alley.

The Gangreen Gang.

Buttercup heaved a sigh at the addition of stressful factor.

One of the leaner ones with shaggy hair halted in his tracks and held up his shades. "Well, well, well, what's we have here? Two young couples _rendez-vous_ ing under the moonlight?" His pack of friends sniggered derisively behind. "You know little kids like you aren't supposed to be out this late."

Butch held out his tongue disgusted. "Dude, what?"

"Move along, Ace." Buttercup warned.

"Hey now, don't give me the cold shoulder." He looked over at Butch frowning behind her. "Is it because we're in front of your new boyfriend? How long has it been since we called it cuts even? Are all Powerpuffs this fickle?"

"S-s-s-seems s-s-so." Snake from the gang remarked. Big Billy, Arturo, and Gruber joined in the mockery by laughing or blowing raspberries.

Buttercup's face flared up in mortification. Why were they suddenly bringing _that_ up?! In front of this stupid Rowdyruff, even! **(A/N: Episode _Buttercrush_ )**

Butch from aside, briefly observed the green girl's—now red—reaction. Man, he sure was seeing a lot of her new sides in less than a day. And as amusing as the situation could be right now, the puff seemed to be in no state to defend herself, which was annoying since _he_ was also being pulled into this stupid joke. He turned his eyes over to Ace and grimaced. Ugh.. Not that he wanted to know anything about the puff's yucky chick-drama, but if anything, this Powerpuff really had no taste in dudes.

"Hey _sleazeball!_ You better stop or I'll-!"

Butch cut himself short when Buttercup in bloody rage, outdid him by knocking all five members of the gang to the ground. One by one she sabotaged them brutally until they all rolled around crying for mercy. She seethed heavily in intermittent gusts of breaths as she threw a few last kicks toward their beaten bodies. Then, leaving the moaning heap behind, the green girl huffed and resumed to exiting the scene.

The puff however, was unaware of a drawing dark behind her that stood up from recovery. Up against the alley wall away from her notice, a tall shadow of Ace was shown, a jagged brick in his hand, close to striking the girl on the back of her head.

"Look out, puff!"

The green girl abruptly turned to jump, startled to see her counterpart intercept and sock the hooligan in the kisser. The attempted assaulter shambled to the side, banging his head with the wall, and his body afterwards drooped limply onto the ground, knocked out unconscious.

The just saved damsel was far beyond discomforted from what just happened, "What'd ya do that for?! I could've done it _myself!"_

" _Yeah,_ sure. Yer' welcome, toots." Butch twisted his face, but snickered in full awareness as he didn't expect gratitude coming from her, anyway.

His counterpart, in suppressed fury, marched in harsh strides in spite of her battle wounds. The stunned witness, at that, brought his dropped jaw back up and trotted close behind her.

"Dang puff, you still got it in ya?"

"You still gonna follow?" Buttercup eyed him irritably.

"Well, of course. Gotta make sure you don't mess with my brother," he said casually.

Buttercup stopped to glare at him. He just didn't know when to drop this little stunt. "And what's stopping me? I can still manage to make you join those goons over there."

"And I can still manage to wake up the whole neighborhood." Butch countered.

 _Darn it,_ Buttercup cursed inwardly. He was smarter than he looked at this game.

The two hot-headed opponents glowered at each other while Buttercup realistically thought through her condition and the racket she'll have to cause when she fights him. She broke the deadlock and grumbled as she relinquished her former plans. She'll have to stall for a breakthrough to ditch him.

"Fine. I'm going somewhere else."

"Where to?"

Buttercup narrowed her eyes at his persistance. She ran through her options before she answered, "Over to the dumpster where those punks live."

"Taking over their fortress, huh?" Hearing that, Butch eased up and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'll come with. You know, so you don't get any stupid ideas." His mouth widened sideways to show a snarky grin.

Buttercup opened her mouth, but as she was too tired to argue, dismissed what she was going to say.

"Whatever."

Granted, it wasn't that much of a long walk to the dumpster, but the silence falling from her stalker behind made it the more tedious and uncomfortable.

After a few unbearable still silence, Buttercup craned her neck back to take a subtle peek at him, but once he held his gaze to meet hers, she quickly jerked back forward. So much for finding a breakthrough... What was with him, anyway? Seeing how he was no longer hellbent on attacking her proved that his motive for defending his brother was probably true. But why suddenly? Those barfbrains are incapable of compassion, aren't they? And what bugged her more was: did he just try to _defend_ her back there?

No way. He couldn't have done that for a specific reason.

But matters aside, the thought of her having to play by his cards irked her. She, unfortunately, had no choice at this point. As hard as it was for her to admit, she would surely lose to him if they got back into battle.

...

Oh man, but it was just too silent..! It was her duty now to keep an eye on him right?

Just when Buttercup was battling in her head whether she had to check back to see what he was doing, out flew her counterpart's curious question taking care of that matter.

"Why you all berserk to get at them? Sure, you _care,_ whatever, but you think you even stand a chance out there like _that?"_ The green ruff pointed out her condition for what he thought was good measure, but which Buttercup reacted with none. Seeing no worth, she kept her pace and focus forward, strolling effortfully away. Butch groaned at her 'inability' even here to fight back at him. After some moments, he referred back to the smoke still in sight. "Are you even sure it's them over there?"

"I know what I see." Buttercup finally responded, annoyed, "Somehow my sister believes your good-to-nothing brother needs to have a _reason_ for what crookery he did. And I don't believe that for one second. You punks got no reason for your ugly deeds. Not him, not any of you."

This time Butch fell silent for what he heard. And Buttercup honestly, wondered why, but didn't bother to look back to view his expression.

"Here we are." Butch remarked, caught up beside her without her noticing. Buttercup scowled as she side-stepped away. She looked ahead and acknowledged the Townsville Dump, with giant conglomerates of garbage and an incinerator visible in a distance. Amid the hills of junk was a green beat-up shack, the fort of the previous hoodlums she handled left unoccupied.

"Are we going in or what?"

" _I_ decide what to do." Buttercup snapped at him pressing. "You're just tagging your boy butt along, remember?"

She made a clearly annoyed trek towards the green fortress and entered the space, slamming open the door without looking back. Butch more composedly followed her in, trudging lazily with hands shoved in his pants pockets.

Immediately, the first thing the green puff did was make a beeline towards an old run-down refrigerator covered in brown stains of god knows what. She delved through its cringeworthy contents and fortunately inside, she found a soggy hot dog entirely drooping from over-sprayed condiments. Flies buzzing about made it the less sanitary looking, but the green puff could care less from her hunger. She munched down the food in one piece.

Butch eyed a judging look to the puff sucking her hand clean, which Buttercup met with a glare. "What? You want one?"

Butch leant to one side and pulled one of his hands out of his pockets. "Yeah, toss me one."

Barely letting him finish, an equally disgusting hotdog flew up to his face, which he caught with one snap of his wrist. The sauce splattered all over his arm length.

"Watch it." He growled. But Buttercup wasn't even looking at him. The green puff had already moved onwards to chugging down an entire gooey carton of milk. After she was done, she licked her white-coated lips clean and let out a huge, belly-deep, satisfied belch.

The green Rowdyruff was more than just blown from the performance and dropped his hotdog. He'd never seen a girl who had the guts to do that before. He choked back a smirk and muttered, "Gross!" which was a compliment on his part.

Meanwhile, Buttercup haphazardly threw the milk carton she was done with and marched along to another corner.

Butch followed her steps and discovered her working on a beat-up television this time.

"You sure seem to know where everything is." He said, scanning the nearabouts. He smirked. "Is what _green sleazeball_ said back there the truth? You guys were all kissy-kissy up in a tree?"

"Nothin you should be concerned with, bucko." She grumbled with stifled hatred.

Butch took some slow steps forward. "What's the deal, Powerpuff? This isn't exactly where goodie girls like you come and hang around." He waved around the whole background before continuing, _"This_ isn't 'girly.' Most would puke their girl insides out at the thought of it."

Buttercup obviously incensed, glared at him nastily. "Well I'm not the typical gal you picture us to be." She pulled herself away from the unresponsive television set and bore into his eyes. "I can be stronger, faster, even _smellier_ than you! And I ain't the one who need saving! _I can handle myself!"_

Her shouts were partially alluding to what happened back at the alley.

Butch stayed quiet for a moment, then whiffed the air with a snort.

 _"Psssht. Smellier?_ Never mind the rest, but that's just a downright pathetic lie!"

Buttercup creased her eyebrows. "You wanna bet?"

Butch slouched his shoulders into a careless shrug.

"I mean, the burp just now was impressive, I'll give you that. But beat our manly odor? Don't ya think that's a bit of a stretch?" The boy stretched out his arms and placed them behind his head, letting loose the stench from his armpits.

 _Ugggh.._ Buttercup bit back a grimace.

"Ya see? Don't try to fool yourself, girlie." Butch crossed his arms and laughed in triumph.

The green puff rolled her eyes. This was getting childish. Why did she have to prove how gross she was to this idiot? But then again, this barfbag really knew how to get on her nerves.

"Fine, you can have your slimey ol' victory. But I'll have you know, I went for weeks without showering!"

"Weeks?" One of Butch's eyebrows seemed intrigued.

"Yeah? I reeked of filthy stench that the whole town had to give me a restraining order!" **(A/N: Episode _Down N' Dirty_ )**

Butch narrowed his eyes in doubt. "You're bluffing."

"Believe what you want." Buttercup said with an easy smile, "I hate baths. I only take them because it prevents me from fighting monsters."

Something about her demeanor and what she pulled off in front of him moments ago told Butch that she wasn't just making this up. A competitive nature for dirtiness built up inside him.

"Oh yeah? Well I had to battle this _SICK_ sewage monster once that left me growing molds for a whole month!"

Buttercup seemed unfazed, "Puleeze, ever had to lick yourself out of a glob of slime to set yourself free? I had that nasty taste on my tongue for god knows how long!"

"Hah! That's nothing! I hadta handle these goons who spat slop everywhere and..."

"Have you ever seen monster snot so big that..."

It didn't take long for the relay of slob battle to occur between the two.

"...ya think that's anything?!.."

"...you better listen to this!..."

"...Had to hold in a fart for so long that..."

"...I had to swallow the loogie I spat out..."

"...%$^&$#"

"... $%%^$#^&%*"

Incoherent listings of their proud lacking personal hygiene went on and on until the moon waned a little.

Buttercup yawned in between their battle.

"Hey, are you listening?!"

"Can it, I'm tired. Gonna lie down for a while." She dismissed her counterpart's new gross experience challenge with her hand and strolled over to a side of the room. Then, at a thought, she swiveled back to where the ruff would be.

At a respectable distance away from him, the puff laid out a firm ground rule: "Don't, move, an inch from there."

Ignoring his chance to speak, she blasted out of the shack and swooped back in with ornaments from the garbage pile hanging them across the entire walls and ceiling. Pots, pans, empty cans and bottles were instantly strung densely into a matrix between the two through worn out fish ropes and long cloths. Moving an inch closer to anywhere than where they were would cause a ruckus for sure. Buttercup gazed into Butch on the other side and smirked.

"Now you can't try to do anything fishy without me waking up."

"Hah. Same goes for you too, stupid."

Buttercup blinked and looked around the mess she created. He was right. She officially trapped both of them inside the dilapidated shack.

She cursed to herself but did not show it out in the open. Now she was stuck inside with the enemy.

The tired puff settled herself down to a wall and rested her back. Her eyelids were drooping as she watched her counterpart do the same on the opposite side.

She disheveled her hair. This had to do. It was the best she could manage for now. She had to gain back her energy, and at this current rate, there was no way she could supersede him to get to Blossom.

 _'I'll_ _deal with it in the morning...'_

But before she could let go and slowly indulge herself into sleep, she heard the ruff's voice intrude her.

"If you're still thinkin 'bout getting to your sister, then forget it."

Buttercup disintegrated her growls, knowing there was nothing she could do about it for now.

His voice continued, somewhat softly this time. "He probs won't hurt her anyway."

_What?_

Her world was unsteady and spinning from exhaustion. Was she imagining things now?

Albeit dubious ambience, more of his utterance entered her.

"...Brick said he was outright done with hunting you girls down." He breathed, looking down. There was a long pause. By now, he looked equally tired as the puff. "Of course we made fun of him for it and threw him out. He became too much of a _softy_ to even find the urge to attack you anymore, so don't you get nunnuya girly head worried about it," he uncharacteristically whispered.

Buttercup's signature scowl steadily dissolved.

Somehow, drunk on tiredness, something about his normally untrustworthy rambles came off as genuine to her for the first time. The Powerpuff was hardly holding on to reality now, but her stiff muscles on the lookout for him relaxed from his assuring conjecture.

In the meantime, Butch grunted, shaking himself awake.

"He may have become a softball, but I'm NOT having you chase him down on your own, _ya hear?_ He's _my_ bro to beat sense into. 'Manly business' that you sissy girls don't understand." He glared straight over to the puff.

But she was already sound asleep.

Butch stared at her with an incredulous expression. Way to let down your guard, he scoffed. He too, relaxed and crouched his head down on his folded arms on top of his gathered knees. On the opposite side of him, he took notice of the scars of his counterpart slowly healing. The ruff in observation, subconsciously searched her calm sleep-induced face that was missing her usual frown. Heh, this was new. The faces she knew of the puff was always twisted into nasty scowls, but now it was different; she looked calm, comfortable, content... and kind of _cu-?_...

The green boy quickly rattled his head and made a face. _None of those sickly words were allowed one foot in his dictionary!_

He took a whiff of hot air. Man, what was up with him? I mean, look at him right now. He wasn't even throwing himself at the Powerpuff helpless under his attack! And he even came in terms with some of the points she made to him.

_Guess I do care sometimes, huh?_

He remembered himself saying.

The spike-haired ruff sighed disapprovingly and brooded over how Brick questioned why they had to fight these meddling girls in the first place. Then he touched back upon why he himself wasn't fighting his counterpart right now.

Soon, his face was set.

This was his decision, that's why. Not anyone else's.

He glanced upwards, and among the matrices of dangling obstacles, he skimmed the face of the resting Powerpuff one last time before he let himself close his eyes. He had to talk to Brick...

Then, he was out.

ㅡ

There was a mild sprinkle of early morning sunshine transcending through the cracks of the green crumbling fortress. A dozing Powerpuff was precariously rocking back and forth from her sleep, almost coming in touch with a suspended string in front of her, a personal trap set up by her own hands.

On the other side of the imminent peril, was a Rowdyruff sleeping like a log, unaware of the tilting domino.

Indeed, it wasn't long until the puff reached the threshold to tumble forward and set off a loud clamor of alarms, subjugating the whole space into a jangling mess.

Both green superbeings instantly spurred up from their discontinued sleep and watched as the whole structure of the shack collasped down into rubbish with the once hanging garbage. As the two made their sleepy heads visible out of the pile, their eyes were magnified even more from what they usually were, obviously confounded.

With the walls of the shed gone, the two made notice of the rising sun. Their eyes absorbed the coming light.

Then it struck the Powerpuff first. "Blossom..." Her disengaged expression scrunched up in anger as she immediately catapulted out of the dump. _"BLOSSOM!"_

Butch, realizing the situation a second later, fervently followed right after her tracks. "Wait! _Powerpuff!"_ He hollered in the lightening skyline. _"Wait up dammit!"_

ㅡ

Amidst a dangling wind, the last licking remnants of ember extinguished in the ashes of a campfire. In its place, a red-diluted sky dome gave way to a new source of splendor into the thick forest; a dazzling sunrise.

With the newlit rays tickling her face, a pink girl was stirred awake as she wiped off her slumberous visage. She endearingly turned to regard her red friend who lent her a cozy shoulder, and hung a smile below her warm eyes in gratefulness. But it was a matter of seconds that she realized she had to wake up her still dreaming counterpart before anyone would come on the lookout for them. Especially her, having to prepare for school.

Shaking both sides of his shoulders, the puff beckoned the unconscious boy to open his eyes. The ruff, mumbling incomprehensible slurs, peeled his eyes open and let them meet her own. They went wide, for a moment, blanking out on what happened, but in time returned to normal.

Blossom made room so he could gently push himself awake, letting time settle for his mind to grasp sense of reality. He ran his hands down his head to tidy his messy orange roots, then adjusted his cap on top, yawning with his other hand. Then he looked to the Powerpuff and greeted her with a raspy 'hey,' his smile spilling to the side.

The puff giggled and ushered with her head that she should get going, with the rising sun in the background.

All was well until, behind her retreating figure, an incredibly familiar silhouette approached and blocked the fall of sunlight.

Both reds were struck dumb at the foreboding presence.

"It's just as I thought..."

"Buttercup..." the pink girl mustered her name.

"DON'T."

The green puff chomped on her lip as she let down a warning dissent. Blossom was bewildered as to how to handle this situation, Brick the same.

"Let me step in a little here," declared another voice from behind.

"Butch?" Blossom remarked confusedly at the emerging Rowdyruff. She settled her unsure gaze back on her sister. "You were with him?"

Surprised, Buttercup did frantic doubletakes between him and her sister. Heats began to form on the green puff's cheeks. "It's not what you think!" She yelled out loud, completely embarrassed. "At least _I_ didn't betray everyone else like you did!"

"Yeah yeah, we had quite a night."

Throwing off what the green puff had to say, Butch attended to Brick and called, "Brick, we hafta talk, in a manly way."

The two reds stared off to their own siblings invading the floundering gush of air, trying to make sense of what was going on.

This was a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been forever. I'm sorry. I will return with a juicy chapter... until then...!


	11. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grasping his unstable heart, Brick held on to his last trail of hope, right before his thread of consciousness was swallowed up by an abyss of dark pupils.
> 
> "Blossom..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are with a new chapter. And oh my, prepare for ANGST.
> 
> I came back way earlier than expected, because this is a chapter I really really wanted to write.
> 
> As the title implies, this is probably one of the most important chapters there is in the story, which explains the length.
> 
> Just when I think a chapter can't get any longer than it previously was, I go on ahead to disprove myself. xD Proud of myself for finishing it. It's a bit rough around the edges because of finals...*cough* hence some wordings might be edited later, but most likely no change will be in the story. Here we go!

A prickly set up of atmosphere enfolded the now more crowded forest, and it was not because of the swooshing pine leaves close by. An impending face-off between two pair of siblings, red against green, stood in parallel on respective sides of the family, impassable gazes piercing into the other.

"Thought you had nothin' else to do with me." Brick started with reproach on the Rowdyruff side.

The once, and technically still, leader Rowdyruff showed traces of his own morning moodiness as he faced his brother. He knew he had to an extent agreed to his red-bowed counterpart that he would straighten things out with his brothers, one of them present before him now; but his bitterness was getting too much in the way.

Aware of this, his contender took a breathy sigh, not much of a person for words. He ruffled his spikes. "Look man, I know what I did there was _weak_. But we need you back."

"Why? Wouldn't want a _wuss_ for a leader, would you?" Brick snapped.

Butch grumbled unsettlingly. This was going to be a bucket of fun.

On the Powerpuff side of confrontation, Buttercup on her own was still trying to explain herself out of her questionable appearance with Butch. She needed to come clean if she were to have any dignity interrogating her sister afterwards.

"Like I said, it's not what you think! He just came out of nowhere and decided to stalk me all through the night! He... he-!"

Blossom listened silently and casted no doubt. After talking with Brick she herself knew she had to resolve problems with her sister; though this was not how she imagined things to be.

But apart from that, the redhead was well aware that she was in no position to question her. Although she did intend otherwise, she outright lied to her sisters, defended their sworn enemy, and snuck out in the middle of the night without really trying hard enough to give an explanation and build their trust. They were a team, but she endangered it by ignoring Buttercup's input. And if she wanted her green sister to trust that she wanted to make things up with her, she should start with trusting her first. So what if she was with Butch? Buttercup likely had her own reasons, as she had her own.

"Buttercup, I believe you." She assured her sister. The leader revealed her concerned expression to ask upon Buttercup's grabbed attention, "Did he... hurt you in any way?"

Numbed by her question, the raven-haired girl stared at Blossom with mixed emotions.

"Buttercup, please..." Blossom urged softly. "I'm trying to get through to you..."

Oh _now_ she acts like she cares about what she has to say?

The green puff's hitched breath stung with anger, but it subsided as she too, all matters aside, was truthfully relieved to see her pink sibling unhurt. Which was what mattered most. Still, right about now she was wondering if all her worry for her last night was even worth it. She breathed out of her nose.

"No, leader-girl. He can't _ever_ come close to hurting me. I ain't no pushover." The green puff regarded her sister the same. "You?"

Blossom crossed her head and held on to her own hands, humble. Buttercup folded her arms begrudgingly, half still at what her pink sister had done, and half at how she was dealing this with sulk rather than standing up for herself. But now she could see how her leader's aim wasn't to disregard her opinions.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything? This doesn't mean you don't owe me an explanation."

"I know, I know." The leader puff exhaled. She had to get to this one way or the other. The pink puff cleared her voice and met her sister with more clarity. "Listen, I know this looks bad, and I'm truly sorry that you had to find out this way, Buttercup, but... there's something you have to know about the Rowdyruff Boys. Yes, they are evil, yes, they are our enemy, and _yes,_ they are still very wrong for what they did to our people, but it didn't have to _be that way."_

"What...do you mean." Buttercup squeezed her eyes, still far from convinced, but willing to listen.

Meanwhile, the stand off with the Rowyruffs was also breaking ground to more truthful conversations. Neither of them, though, knew what they were in for.

"How 'bout _you_ take your place as _leader?"_ Brick continued from before. He was actually half serious, having long been keen of Butch's envy for his position. Resentment smeared out of his tongue. "I know ya wanted it all along."

Butch could only stare at him with his mouth agape. Oh man, beat sense to him, _nothing!_ If he didn't fess up soon, there was fat chance they'll get their leader back!

"Dude, I no longer want it..!" He cried out, desperate. The green boy groaned frustratedly, letting go his ego. "You don't understand! That's not what _mattered._ It's not you, it's HIM that dirtbag that ticked me off!"

The red ruff's eyebrows drew back a little at his placement of words and the mention of their dark powered father. He backtracked, and his scornful guard slightly dissipated at his brother's truthfulness. Butch saw his relented air as his cue to continue.

"You're not a wuss," he admitted ruefully, eyes shielded and teeth clenched, "It's been the same with me, okay? I got attacked on my way to get pizza, and it _sucked._ " The green ruff grabbed part of his hair along the way, completely perturbed. "What sucks more is that I feel like _dirt_ for letting that get through my head! I'm havin' and feelin' this unwanted _stupid sissy_ thoughts just like you are, and I don't give a darn at what HIM tells us, I was a total screw-up to make fun of ya fer it!"

Brick was listening through his brother's unraveling speech, regarding with closemouthed and pensive thought. He clearly softened from his brother's apologetic reach-out to him. And from his brother's call out of weird happenings, he could perceive that there were definitely matters to be looked into with their _father._ They had to get to the root of this problem. But the red ruff sure couldn't handle it alone, as he tried before.

"And Mojo?" Butch went on. "He was a total buffoon for doing what he did. I see it now." The green ruff looked briefly over at his female counterpart facing her sister, the atmosphere over there still tight. "And if ya don't want ta fight the puffs, that's fine," he said. "It should be up to _us_ to do so, if we want it or not. And I'm leaving that up to _you_ , bro." Butch messed up the back of his head as he awkwardly searched for Brick's reaction. His smirk was nervously hopeful. "It's no fun without ya."

There was momentary silence. Brick let out a breath and smiled graciously with a tilted brow, "Took ya long enough."

Back to the Powerpuffs, Blossom was doing her best to calmly iterate what was told to her and what she found out about the boys. The way they were controlled and manipulated, how they never had a chance to think for themselves, and though hesitant to talk about Brick's personal matters, what _really_ happened down at the park, along with the incident with Mojo.

"So hold up, _HIM_ is behind all the commotion?" Buttercup called in between her sentences.

"In a way, yes."

Buttercup glanced briefly at the standing boys off the side.

 _"Annd_ you think those dunderheads are capable of _feeling?_ They want people to _care_ _about them?!_ Yeah, right. What a joke!" The green puff scoffed with a shake of her head.

"It's true." Blossom insisted, voice kept moderate. She thought through her head. "You've been out with Butch. Haven't you noticed anything different about him? _Anything at all?"_ She pressed hopefully, as it might have affected Butch some way as well.

Buttercup, instead of retorting without thinking like usual, 'hmmph'ed and fished through what happened last night: It was displeasing, yes, but also very weird. The ruff for sure, had been consistently showing signs of affection for his brother and a strong indefatigable will to protect him, _weird;_ but what was weirder was his peculiar decision to refrain from wiping her out of existence. She was, although painful to admit, at his mercy last night; but the green boy took a glimpse of her circumstances and let her be, _defended_ her from outside attack, and even _soothed_ her out of her worries!

_If it's my brother you're looking for, then you'll have go through me..._

_...He became too much of a softy... so don't you get nunnuya girly head worried about it..._

_..._

Oh crud, and it turned out he seriously wasn't lying! It really _wasn't_ in Brick's interest to attack her sister, Butch really _wanted_ to stand up for his brother, and there really _was_ _no_ underlying plot against her and her sisters.

Buttercup felt her head being chewed out. Are these boys really going through _changes?_ If all this happening was true, then she couldn't really blame the Rowdyruffs for being entirely evil all the time.

She blew out a sigh. By now she could say she made up with her sister, but she wasn't about to let herself believe these twerps were corrigible...yet.

"We're taking this convo elsewhere. Bubbles has to hear this, too."

Nodding, Blossom agreed at this idea. The two sisters were about to depart side by side.

"Hey, Blossom!"

The redheaded girl, taken by surprise, faced wholly towards Brick's voice, astonished by the mention of her name.

Brick wasn't the one to miss her surprised reaction, and blushed red. Was it _that_ weird? She was staring at him wide-eyed as if she didn't realize that he knew it. He _knew_ their names all along, they _all did_ because of HIM, though it was meant to be inscribed in their minds as hateful. But his first call to her, thankfully, wasn't that of.

"I'll catch up to you later or whatever, yeah?" he released a nervous, yet cheeky smile.

"Sure," Blossom's smile resonated. "Later, Brick."

Butch, watching their amiable exchange, turned to his own partner to call, "Yo, Butter- _puff!"_

His said 'partner' snarled unappreciatively at the purposedly half-pronounced name. "What."

"You'd better be prepared for _these_ _babies_ next time." The jet-black haired ruff kissed his knuckles each time and winked mischievously at her. "No easy-going from now on."

Buttercup's tongue discharged in disgust, but strangely her face was in deep fluster from his unexpected act.

"Like _heck_ I wouldn't be ready!"

She turned away in rapid motion and ejected herself out of the forest, her head steaming.

Blossom gave the two ruffs a friendly wave and left likewise in her trail.

After their leave, the green Rowdyruff chuckled in prankish humor. "Heh, greenie. She a tough one, ain't she?"

He turned to find Brick looking at him with an unreadable judging expression. Butch hissed in defensive nature. "What? I'll keep quiet of your deal with pinkie if you let off mine."

"Deal." Brick said curtly.

They both choofed out of the no longer towering forest trees.

ㅡ

In another space of dawning light, gentle snores of snoozing children was heard. A stuffed animal held in one of their dormant grasps languidly found their way out, and in slow stir, out of the two, the heavy-eyed Powerpuff slid her baby blue eyes open. The blue girl remembered blurry images of the past night; them falling asleep after her long recites of storytelling, her counterpart's night-light slowly dissipating...

She fixed her pig-tails and stood up stretching with a lengthening yawn. She then lightly tapped the shoulder of her counterpart still in dreamland, a drool trickling down the side of his mouth.

"Boomer."

"It wasn't me!" The boy wiped his mouth and scrambled up to his feet. "...Huh?" He goggled, waking up.

"Boomer, I gotta go. I have school." The puff said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Oh..."

The boy traced his glum blue eyes down at his feet and murmured in hinting sorrow. "Before you go, just so ya know..." He stalled a bit for truthful words. "Your stories are awesome."

"Oh?..." Bubbles shyly twirled one of her pig-tails with her hand. "Thank you."

All was hushed. Their time together was coming to an end, but it felt unfinished to just leave, the air between them.

Bubbles mulled over what could be done. "You know... you can join us anytime to be part of it. It'll be fun..." she told him meekly. If she could convince her sisters by then that is.

Boomer looked uncertain himself as his eyes digressed. He still seemed scared of the idea, letting their sibings know about their new friendship, let alone allow him to fight next to her.

The blue girl's spirits were downcast from knowing she made it gloomier. Despondent, she prepared herself to leave. "Bye, Boomer."

He breathed, and let down a whisper. "Goodbye, Bubbles..."

Bubbles lifted her eyebrows, pleasently surprised but also saddened by the utter of her name. _Goodbye..._ She held back the heated tears starting to form behind her eyes. She hoped this wasn't their last time seeing each other like this.

The blues dashed out of their late-night playground, toward their respective homes.

ㅡ

Dark forest green and deep maroon red were parallel in the sky to the other. In the middle of their flight back to Mojo's pad, the green ruff sensed the hesitance in the unfocused light of eyes in his leader. Concern molded into Butch's pool of dark green eyes as he gathered his best comforting voice.

"Don't worry about monkey, he's been treating us alright. After ya left, the dude's been sorry."

Brick tuned in. "Yeah?"

"He did dinner, built this dank gym and even went through his tech to make us this thing-a-majig." He held out his wrist for Brick to see the gadget he was wearing.

"Heh, I was wondering what that was." Brick replied, showing interest.

"And if dat still ain't enough, we can _use him_ to get _demon-dad off our back_ , just like he used us." He offered, his grin devious. "Waddya say?"

Brick quirked a smile at him. "I like how how you think, sergeant."

The two chuckled and faced front.

The air around the red boy was much more alleviated. He's been sorry, huh? Monkey-daddy might just deserve a second chance. And as for _HIM_ that _scumbag_... Brick's expression turned grave. The ruff could see a way of solving all this mess. If only they all put their heads together...

Brick then realized someone's absence.

"Wait a minute, where da heck is Boomer?"

"He's still at the..."

There was a blue shower of meteor ray gaining toward them on their side view, which answered the question. It slowed down hesitantly, and equalized its speed with theirs beside them.

"Uh- hey, dudes!" came a nervous greeting, acknowledging red.

"Whadaya know, it's Boomie!" Brick grinned with laid back half-lidded eyes. They were glad to see him, but none of the two questioned where he had been.

The owner of the blue light pulled back in puzzlement at the ease of mood.

"Wait, we all cool, now?"

"Yup." Red and green both answered simply. Boomer shrugged in relief, accepting easily. Clouds of the clear sky swept past their pathway.

"So what up? Where we heading?"

Brick made a motion with his head.

"Tell 'im, Butch."

"Mojo's of course, ya dingus. And we decided we're not fightin the puffs unless we wanna."

"Oh-okay!" Boomer chirped. This was more than good news for team blue. He might actually see his counterpart again without having to fight her.

"And- from now on, we gonna lay it down on HIM and Mojo that we ain't their puppets for show."

"Oh..." Boomer's voice was heavier than before at Butch's notification. _This was sudden_...

...But well, why the heck not?

He didn't know about Mojo, but his face twisted in anger at what HIM made them go through all this time. Besides, unlike what HIM made him believe, thanks to someone, he knew now that he wasn't _weak._ He wasn't a _pushover_ compared to his brothers. And he sure wasn't his _puppet,_ nosiree. If his brothers were in for it, it probably was high time.

"Yeah, let's do that."

Their combined powers of rainbow arched towards their destination.

ㅡ

With a roar of impact, the ceiling of Mojo's observatory crumbled loose at the trio's arrival. The three figures descended down from their dust wind.

"Alright, Mojo." The leader of the gang emerged. " _Master Brick_ has arrived! But there's gotta be some _changes_ to things around here, if ya truly wanna.." Brick slowed his words, "...say... sorry..."

A chill of ominous air crawled down their spines.

"Good to see you back, _boys,"_ echoed an effeminate voice. "Enjoyed your time out, hmmm?"

"What is _HE_ doing here..?" Brick's tone stiffened with rancor. The boys all together took a backstep from the thin and uncomfortable red fog they were about to tred on, contempt evident in their eyes.

The attention-divided monkey in the corner whipped around to face his boys, his own face ill-humored at the not-so-subtle presence in his territory.

"I did _NOT_ permit him entrance!" he pointed, still in his pajamas and robe, not properly dressed, "He barged in himself!"

There was a disturbing chortle coming near. "Now Mojo, what's wrong with a father wanting to see his boys?" It said coyly. The dark entity vanished from its original place, and summoned himself behind Mojo's back, laying his large pincers down delicately on the chimp's tremoring shoulders.

The monkey, irked, turned to the voice with raging temper.

"It is NOT your time to come take them is the problem! Not even close!" he balled his fists, "This is an absolute violation of our pact! Which I certify it to specifically state: _not to 'intervene,'_ as in, not _to 'cross over the line,' and DEFINITELY NOT TO 'butt in' to one's parenting business!_ Which is _to say,_ that also entails _NOT butting into_ one's sanctuary without permission so _EARLY IN THE BLASTED MORNINNNGGG!"_ the monkey screeched, jumping up and down in his night robe, shaking his monkey fists in the air.

"Oh-?" In complete unbothered temperament, HIM the dark devil gingerly pulled back from their space in seeming reflect, placing a claw up to his chin. "You have a point, my fellow monkey-guardian. _But_ —" he thrusted upfront with a booming volume _"_ — _HOW_ is a parent not to take measures when his _children are being_ _NEGLECTED?"_

Mojo was irate with his forefinger up. "You speak nonsense! I have NOT neglected my duties as a parent!"

"Well then, _where were they,_ Mojo?" HIM voiced down, calmly folding his claws in front of his puffed out chest. His tone was condescending, _"Where_ had the boys been just now, before you woke up to my visit?"

"That's-!"

"None of you two's beeswax!" Brick finished, stealing the baton. The two parents were whipped to his attention. The red boy stood, legs apart, prepared to lay down the talk, "We're not _babies!_ We can choose for our own what we do and where we go!"

"Yeah!" His brothers shouted.

...

A shred of silence fell.

In slow clickings of heels to the floor, HIM straightened himself and advanced forward in a low chuckle, "Is that so my little ones? And what would those choices be?" he hummed, "Choices such as going behind your own parents to get—," he grinned as flames shot up "—FRIENDLY WITH THE ENEMY?"

The children flinched in shock, but Brick hunched forward and swung his arm to the side in their defense.

"We don't know what you're talkin about!"

A burst of evil laughter occured, then an enormous dark wind of energy accumulated around the devil.

"DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME, CHILD! I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU THREE HALF-WITS HAVE BEEN! YOU WERE ALL BEING SISSIFIED UNDER THE POWERPUFFS' GIRLY ENTICEMENTS!" he fumed.

With a sharp gasp, their expressions were exposed.

 _"What?!"_ Mojo stood off to the devil with total disbelief.

"ASK THEM YOURSELF!"

The chimp parent jerked himself toward his boys, pointing to his opponent, "Is what this miscreant rambling, the truth?!"

"..."

Throwing glances among them, the Rowdyruffs all evaded the chimp's gaze, an agitated frown disclosed on their faces. The monkey sunk down his jaw, appalled—but he swayed his head. Appalled or not, and _truth or no truth_ , this was something that _he_ should have rightfully pursued and handled for _his_ start of the term as a parent!

The irritated chimp called to his partner in parentship, "And _how,_ may I ask, did you obtain this _reliable_ piece of information?" he addressed him in doubtful delivery.

HIM shrugged, letting down the obvious answer: "I've been spying on them."

"You've been spying on us?!"

"You've been SPYING ON THEM?!" Mojo shrieked equally in horror.

"I _knew it."_ Butch growled.

Steam flew out and rattled from the braincap of the monkey. Face throbbing with high blood pressure, the last straw broke for Mojo.

"You are sick! _Despicable!_ Undeserving of the father title that you have been placed!"—he marched in furious strides everywhere as he let his anger loose—"How dare you not trust our boys and infringe on their privacy?! I must breach! Terminate! Break off this ridiculous joint parentship at once! For it is obvious to the most plainest of plain eye that _I_ —Mojo Jojo—am the more capable and deserving father!"—he flared his opponent an impaling scowl through his eyes.

"Step down, _MONKEY."_ Voice turning effeminate to sinister, the demon parent surmounted the short-heighted chimpanzee, "I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT TROUBLE IF YOU DID THINGS RIGHT AND KEPT THESE SIMPLETONS AT THEIR PLACE."

Biting their acrimony, the two faced a glowering deathmatch with their limbs outstretched to grab hold of one another, when the ruffs intruded the collision and broke them off.

Siding with Mojo, Brick came to place, " _You_ back off, schmuk!

"At least monkey here gave us the treatment that we deserved!" Butch hollered.

"Yeah! He's been way more rad than you!" Boomer stood by, "We're tired of your bossing around and watching over our every move!"

At the intrusion, a stunned Mojo stood in stupor at the support he was receiving.

HIM smoldered in disdain, growling lowly, _"You've barely spent a day with him_ —"the demon erupted out of his skin"—AND YOU DARE TO TELL ME THAT THIS UNWORTHY 'IMP' IS AT SUPERIORITY THAN I AM AS YOUR FATHER?! YOU IMBECILES ARE FORGETTING THAT _I_ AM THE ONE WHO TRAINED YOU, _I_ AM THE ONE WHO TOOK CARE OF YOU, AND _I_ AM THE ONE WHO CARED TO EVEN _GRANT LIFE BACK TO YOU_ ," geysers of spitting flames fired behind him as he pointed to Mojo "-WHILE THIS MONKEY JUST SAT IDLE AT HIS DEN AND DID _NOTHING!"_

A gust of heatshock from his wrath knocked the boys back.

From the result of their long-engraved brainwashing, the three backed up from their demon father's diatribe, staring back at Mojo with hesitant eyes.

"DON'T LIE TO YOURSELVES." The ominous voice boomed. "I AM THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU A NEW CHANCE TO LIFE. A NEW POWER TO THE WORLD. WHAT HAS _HE_ EVER GIVEN YOU? YOU THINK HE IS ANY BETTER WHEN HE JUST LEFT YOU TO ROT IN THE FIREY PITS OF DEATH?!"

The face of all three Rowdyruffs dampened at his shrill of voice. Slowly, the boys were shaken by the logic as they stared at the ground, Brick the most.

With all aside, it was true. It was _HIM,_ their devil parent who spared their lives from the dead, not Mojo.

 _...Was Mojo any better to them as_ _a parent than the demon?_

In the midst of the quandary, Mojo watched in dismay as he saw the trust in the boys start to diminish. A sheer pain jabbed his cold villain heart as he realized what state of turmoil their minds were going through. His heightened emotions closed in especially, on the most affected expression out of the three—Brick.

"...Brick, my boy..." A call to his red son escaped him,

But what traced to him was a despising stare under blood-orange bangs, falling loose from a baseball cap. It faced the other way shortly, refusing to listen.

There seemed to be a formidable gap between them.

Desolated, the rejected father looked mournfully down at his bare paws, unclothed, grasping at nothing. The flames of the atmosphere vanquished from his train of thought as his memory of yesterday raked his insides.

_...YOU AND YOUR STUPID WORK!..._

_...You're always thinking of another stupid plan to get rid of those girls... that's all you care about!_

_...We're not sons to you at all!..._

_..We're just another crappy plan you had in mind, and nothing more...!_

"No..." the monkey father staggered in his steps ahead, shaking his head violently, " _No!_ _That is far from the case!_ Boys, you do not understand-!" Painfully, his knees collasped to the floor as green paws shielded his eyes with self-blame, "-It is misguided to say I did not try! I DID! A _thousand,_ possibly _million times_ I've thought of it! But I _could not!_ I _COULD NOT_ because I was scared of _... losing you again..!"_

_...!_

Out of the murk,

there was a tug of heartbeat.

"You... were..?" came Brick's whisper. The color of red eyes shook in the distance.

There was a release of deep woe. "...That's not all there is!" Mojo took grab of his braincap and fastened his eyes shut, still on the ground, "Your formation was unstable!" he explained, "No matter how much I worked on your remains to stabilize your centralizing nature and bring your lives back, it was hopeless!— _It was out of my reach,_ even for my brilliant intelligence! And at the worst, there was no guarantee that you would turn out the _same!_ All three of you could have ended up as completely different individuals with different memories—!"

He, in shaky movements, rose back up to his feet.

"...Please, boys..! You must believe me! I had your sole identity at my best interest!" he reached out his quaking palms, "It would have meant nothing— _nothing_ at all, if it weren't meant to be my same boys...!"

_..._

A dose of unexplained feelings coursed through the standing boys.

By this time, Brick slightly shifted his eyes to meet the poor monkey shuddering in anguish. The other two reflected the same.

"Hoh..?" broke an intrigued emanation. The dark daunting atmosphere completely vanished as HIM reappeared out of thin air and slanted his eyebrows upwards. "Seems like monkey-boy here somewhat knew what was going on..." The demon's sinister grin spread to its sides.

The entity snapped his pincers, breaking open the floor, and brought up a rocky podium underneath the monkey's stumbling feet. The ground below the boys also shook and shot up, a little under the same height as Mojo's footing. Soon, other parts of the observatory floor quaked and deformed, disarraying furniture, as the lair of Mojo was completely swept by red smokes cloaking the intrusion of light, except for those on Mojo and the Rowdyruffs. The monkey on the newly built stage quavered before the devil floating on a red glowing cloud, ascending over their children standing beneath. He was to be put into their judgement.

"Well...what do you say _boys?_ — _"_ the red devil called upon the three standing juries, amused, "Do you think this pathetic monkey brain deserves—FORGIVENESS?"

The three were silent, their heads downcast, expressions hidden by dark shadows over their eyes.

"—!"

Mojo's eye-lights vibrated as he became suffocated by the tension. The pressure insinuated by HIM was insufferable; and taken by his own uncontrollable mounting up of emotions, the monkey parent slowly tumbled into heart-breaking sobs, his posture falling down one by one, clasping his heart in spikey heaves. HIM laughed madly at his damnation, certain of his victory.

...But that moment, the sound of Mojo's sobs stirred one of the figures, forming lights back in its eyes.

It asked, "If... If it was possible, then... would you have _brought us back?"_ the voice of the red ruff rippled the air, reaching the center of his father's ears.

All three regarded him upraised on his judgement post, their lights no longer washed by antipathy.

Mojo, still tremoring in quiet sobs, felt his throat tingle at the ray of hope, "Yes, my boy.." came a hoarse but sincere answer, "You are my _son."_ he looked down to all of them from his sitting, relieved from the endowed opening of their hearts. "You all are."

There was an audible roll of demon eyes.

"Oh boy-"

HIM's face fell to a frown from the unwanted turnout, drenched in boredom as he lay on his cloud, obviously unmoved.

"Enough with this," he yawned, pulling up, flicking a claw to the side. "I am _sooo_ wasting evil-ness from all this mushy 'fatherly love.'"

Afterwards, with a sharp strike, he generated a handful of physchokinetic force and slammed the monkey to his back, onto the nearest wall, wheezing the air out of his lungs.

"Mojo!" The boys cried.

In a shrill second, shackles sprouted from the walls and latched on to the fighting wrists and ankles of the father monkey, fastening him above his feet. Another bundle of more malleable dark globs chained him around the mouth and subdued his resistant screams.

At once, a howling roar of laughter swept the ambiance, increasing in intensity and pulling apart the unstable compartments of the ground. All hell broke loose; flames bursted, winds swirled, and lava bubbled up from the volcano that was exposed beneath, melting down what could have been once a place for a homely household.

Following its path of destruction, the outcropping underneath the boys crumbled, bringing them down to rocky edges of what was left of the ground.

Finally, a gobbet of lava erupted in front of a dark levitating Lord, his back turned, materializing a rising throne of his own.

"NOW," His evil Majesty bellowed, turning; he reclined on his throne as he rested his arms; the earth quaked from his presence, "WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH YOU?"

The Rowdyruff Boys stumbled, doing their best to catch their hold of balance among their footing in the blazing inferno, both mental and physical.

First gaining ground, Brick faced the void of darkness.

"You may have taken Mojo down, but _this isn't your 'kingdom,' HIM!"_ He ripped out his contempt, standing upright in front of his team full of steady confidence, "You can conjure up all your evil spells all you want, but ya can't overpower us here!"

The red-powered boy smirked smugly in front of his high and mighty father.

..But the smirk hung on the devil was wider.

"Oh, how wrong you are Brick..."

The voice echoed,

and _rang in theirrr-RRRIIIIINNNNGGG!_

"— _AGHHHH!"_

All together, the three let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Unable to take hold, they dropped low to a gash of pain pulsating from their veins, crippling them down to submission. They panted, bloody-eyed, as immeasurable amount of weight and heaviness were inflicted from inside, their line of spinal cords and pain receptors going wild. Watching this, their monkey parent as well helplessly screeched and struggled against his binds at their downfall.

"What's happening?!" Butch gasped out, wheezing,

Boomer likewise whimpered in ragged breaths,

And with the world in his vision spiraling around, Brick was on all fours, his hands scraping the ground in agony; his head clanging in alarm.

"...the shots!" He choked out.

Satisfied by the answer, His Majesty conjured on a malicious grin. "Right you are,"—he echoed—"So that means you're under my sole control noww..." With taunting air, he descended from his throne, step by step—"No. matter. where. you. are."

"You...! you... _tricked us!"_

"Ohh Brick, you knew it already, son." The devil laughed and teleported to meet his eyes, only his head floating just aloft the ground. "I _knew_ you were always the sharpest tack in the box."

"What... the heck do you mean..." Brick snarled in denial, his breath stabilizing. Thankfully, he was able to bear the pain now; all three of their bodies were withstanding their aches, though still paralyzed on the earth unfolding beneath.

HIM again, disappeared and reappeared on a cloud elsewhere.

"Oh don't think I haven't noticed," the devil put a mock claw on his chest, "I know you're smarter than what you let yourself be, my boy,"—he cooed knowingly—"But all aside, I'm impressed. It must have been hard to contain yourself." The dark voice shook his head in fake disappointment, claws shown sideways, "If only you were smart enough to use your intelligence for _evil_... tsk tsk... _Isn't that right, Mojo?"_

The tied parent in the back could do nothing but struggle against his gag.

" _Anywho_ —as much as I wanted it differently;" The demon popped up on an outcropping that he newly summoned, staring into the monkey's angry eyes—"With all matters coming to this, I suppose it's time I let you in, as also a rightful parent to our boys, some shocking _'revelations'_..." He crossed his heel-clad legs, quoting ecstatically with his giant pincers. The demon then craned his neck eerily backwards to address the other three in the background. "This is an interesting topic that concerns you too, boysss—the truth behind your _rebirth_. So you might as well pay close attention..." he giggled.

He came down from his seat in dainty landing of feet. The red demon hummed a happy tune and danced in long strides on his thigh-high stiletto boots, reaching close to Mojo—"May be a surprise to you, _monkey,_ but I didn't just bring the boys back to life out of whim. I did some research of my ownn," he proclaimed flamboyantly, claw arching backwards, "As you know, 'Chemical X'...is such a _peculiar_ substance—It is volatile. _Unstable_. And without the right containment of it, it will _explode out of hand_ —which is why— _'BOOM!'"_ HIM made a small explosive puff within his two claws, "Unlike the girls, the boys couldn't take control of their overflowing powers in time, turning to _pitiful clouds of dust."_

Boomer, facedown on the ground, strainedly lifted his head up from hearing the story.

"But I thought- but I thought we 'exploded' because of da _cooties-!"_

"Hah! Cooties?!" HIM cackled derogatively. "Oh Boomer, you naive, innocent soul. It must be hard to be so painfully ignorant—There _were no_ 'cooties,' _EVER!_ Don't you see?! My injections were purely to mold you to my purpose through trial and error!"—his tone rolled on the ground contemptuously—"Because it turns out your 'unstable' puny bodies back then just couldn't handle the Powerpuff's _defined goodness!"_

Mojo looked more than disturbed by the mention of the solemn past event, which HIM noticed.

"Yes, that's right. The chemical X you chose to create them, Mojo, was too _unstable_." The demon twirled his claws in the air, "Ohhh dear, by the way—ever wondered where _that_ came from? The chemical X you found in jail, hmmm?"

No one in the room, if capable, was willing to answer.

HIM, red-faced and annoyed by the obvious lack of response lashed out on his own;

"Come on, THINK WITH YOUR MONKEY BRAIN, Mojo! How on earth would chemical X end up in a toilet bowl inside a prison?"—he roared—" _I_ PUT IT THERE!"

The eyes of the monkey bulged in terror at the disclosure.

"What?!" The ruffs all shrieked against their straints.

Butch snarled, exasperated. _"You're joking!"_

However, HIM's patronizing attention was only placed on the befuddled monkey, tone tainted with derision;

"And you thought _you_ really were the ' _one and only'_ first creator of the Rowdyruffs all alonng, how _amusing..._ If anything, _I_ am their creator—" A thunder rumbled behind,"—I. AM .THEIR. FATHER!"

"Nooooooooooooooo!" came three desolate cries.

_"LIAR!"_

_"IT CAN'T BE REAL!"_

The trauma in Mojo, most out of all, was undescribable.

HIM erupted into a loud belly laugh, clapping his claws onto his face.

"Ohoho- this is quite a pleasant scene to watch! Let's see what our monkey-daddy has to say about this."

The demon ripped the gag free on Mojo with his magic. Owning up to his expectations, the sentences structured from the monkey's freed mouth were inarticulate: "No... it isn't true..it can't be... It was just me. The one, the only, the single solitary doer—"

HIM snorted. "Oh but it _is_ true," he snapped the gag back on, hearing enough. "I thought I'd help out with your _petty little scheme_ , after monitoring your _pitiful-_ self screaming Bloody Mary behind bars through my personal television set, **(A/N: 'The Rowdyruff Boys' episode.)** " he recited, pacing back and forth, "I'll give credits to you for the idea of creating them, but _I_ was the one who provided the most important _source material."_

The demon halted in his tracks. His pincer to his cheek.

"Alas, even a _monkey_ falls from the tree sometimes, right?" he turned, eyeing all four of his prisoners in the eye, "I wanted to make sure these boys were _downright evil._ So it was my 'petty' greed at that time, that had me add a special mix of _pure evil_ in that concoction of chemical X." The devil sighed, in meek regret. "Thanks to that, the boys had been mindlessly _born evil,_ rather than figuring that out own their ownnn," he waved his claw, "And turns out, the chemical X inside them was destabilized and _blew up_ because they were missing _something_ —'something' the girls had, and they _didn't._ What a pesky substance it is."

In a blink, HIM was back on his throne.

"So, for a long time—after the first creation of the boys ended as _utter failure_ —I lost interest," the devil reclined to his back, "Until one day, after sitting on the couch watching endless re-runs of the past, it suddenly hit me—what they were missing was 'free will!'" he pulled up, clasping his pincers together in excitement, "The _inherent power_ to define their nature as good or evil! _Oh goodie!_ Now all we had to do was give them some sprinkle of _'free will'_ and be a jovial family! It's that simple, right?!-"

"—WRONG!" The dark devil answered his own rhetoric in fury. "Because we CAN'T ALLOW _minions_ of our power have free will, _can we?_ Once they start 'asking questions' and 'making decisions' it becomes much harder to control them!" he hissed, "They must be _indoctrinated_ to believe that they actually have a _'choice'_ in choosing their nature! _Then_ , when the time comes where chemical X has fully synced and stabilized with their defined existence— _THAT'S_ when we take over their soul to fully have them _SERVE US!"_

There was a shake of ground as the infernal Lord reigned on his throne, "AND WITH THE POWER OF CHEMICAL X UNDER _MY_ TOTAL CONTROL, NOTHING CAN EVER STAND AGAINST ME!"

AHAHA-AHAHHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Against his manic laughter, the Rowdyruff Boys glowered in horrified expressions at what they picked up.

_"...Minions?!"_

_"..Indoctri-what?!"_

_"...SERVE YOU?!"_ They each cried indignantly.

"YES!"—HIM's voice thundered in top volume, blaring into their eardrums—"YOU ALL WERE ' _BRAINWASHED MINIONS TO SERVE ME!'_ DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WERE ANYTHING WORTH MORE, YOU INSIGNIFICANT SCUMS OF THE EARTH?! YOU ARE JUST MERE TOOLS FOR ME TO ATTAIN MY ULTIMATE WORLD DOMINATION!"

Out of the three, the green ruff saw fire catch behind his eyes, "You mean to say it was _all an act?!_ You trying to suck up to us to be our father, and spending your time with us down at the underground?!"

A harsh switch of air, and the evil presence was in front of the Rowdyruff.

"Now isn't this a surprise. Here I thought you never _cared,_ Butcho, whether or not people—" his face was tender and mocking, " _LOVED_ you."

Evil returned and spat at the boy disdainfully, "Not really the tough one, now _are we?"_

He shook his head, ridding his rancor.

"Well, it wasn't _entirely an act,_ if that makes you feel better." The demon bumped his shoulders in his normal voice. "Daddy did care a little for you boys... What's a little I can't sacrifice, if it's to get what I truly want?" He chuckled and stepped away, his back facing them. The air was again dark and heavy, "Oh but you were all _so meddlesome._ Especially _you,_ Brick." He pointed the shrewd end of his claw toward the leader, _boiling_ over the shoulder, "Always wanting to go outside, do what you want, and have your _'freedom,'_ oh cry me a river _!"_ His tone was stained with absolute disgust. "Why couldn't you be more easy and _docile_ like your brothers? Daddy had to go on and make changes to his plans, and _abridge_ your already short pathetic 'free _'_ time." He slithered his snake-like tongue with mock shame. "You're still not stable enough, but you know what? I don't really care. It's time I _take over your soul..."_ His smooth line of teeth stretched to his cheeks as he eyed them greedily, "..before you wrap your silly heads around anymore _worthless_ ideas..."

From all the surfacing gobbets of deception, the blue boy was having the biggest mental breakdown out of the three quivering bodies.

"So that's really it...?" he squeaked, "Y-you've planned this, all along?"

"Why yes, you little idiot," the returned reply was careless to all degree, "My apologies if I made you believe otherwise, OOPS."

Boomer could feel something hot pull back at his throat. All those efforts to try to keep up with his brothers... _be meaner, tougher, whatever-er..._ they were all rendered useless. They were all behind a _big scam!_

"So we weren't important to you at all-?! Not one teency-weency bit?"

"Why would you be?" It laughed, "What _else_ could possibly be more important than ultimate reigning glory over _all?"_

"...!"

Disintegrating under the truth, the boy hung his head with his morose blue eyes collecting harsh droplets of tears. Small hiccups escaped his mouth as he clenched it down.

"Oh Boomer, how many times do I have to tell you-" The red villain approached viciously in a stampede as he struck him with his boot, _kicking him to the side,_ "-TO 'MAN UP' YOU LITTLE RODENT! I KNEW YOU WERE ALWAYS TOO MUCH OF A CRYBABY! WORTHLESS! PATHETIC! NOT WORTH ANYTHING TO DO THINGS RIGHT!"

The demon's spiteful uproars beat down on the tremulous Rowdyruff, sharp heels close against his downcast face, pinning him in murks of despair.

" _Stop!"_

Watching the cruelty befall, Brick writhed in painful recognition as he was reminded; how he and Butch out of HIM's influence, would demean him, shove him around back and forth with clearly hurtful words, over and over and over...

...He simmered to the very top of his head. NO ONE. _NO ONE_ messes with his little brother!

_"Leave him alone YOU SCOUNDRELLAAGHHHGHHH!"_

The raging Rowdyruff violently rose and resisted against his invisible shackles, strenuously trying to break free and show this demon his place. But all efforts were in vain as he was brutally strangled down again with another tide of heart-wrenching pain. His frustrated scream unwound out of proportion.

Taking a break from his chide on Boomer, the demon feigned surprise at his outburst.

"Brick?" he floated closer, "Is it shocking to you, too? To know how I _didn't_ _care?"_ His demonic face distorted into a freakish smile, "—LIKE THOSE CITIZENS AT THE PARK?!"

_"SHUT UP!"_

Lit by a fuse, the red ruff spewed out his hurt and anger,

"I _KNEW EVERYTHING."_ he gurgled hatefully, "And you were _NEVER_ , in _NO WAY_ MY FATHER!"

" _Too bad._ You didn't do anything about it with your smart little brain."

Brushing off, the demon snapped his claws to bring them to another earsplitting scream, watching as an immediate bout of unknown force thrashed on the Rowdyruffs once again. Clenching their teeth from mind-numbing pain, the boys caved their heads between their arms, their elbows and knees digging into the sizzling earth of fiery heat.

Brick wriggled, lips drawing blood. "You're not getting away with this!"

"How so?" The devil blandly remarked, reclined cross-legged back at his throne. "Oh." He, in sly comprehension, tweaked a large bundle of smoke to project the face of the pink Powerpuff. The demon sneered at Brick's indignant expression, "Do you expect your _princess_ to come to your futile rescue? Well well then, that should be _taken care of,_ shouldn't it?"

Brick's inflamed eyes clasped on to hatred.

 _"Don't you even think about hurting her!"_ The red ruff fired. He clenched his chest, struggling to keep his head up, eyes soared upwards in resilience.

The devil paid no mind to his threat. Instead, he beamed with unraveling dark intentions, _"Oho_ , on the contrary, Brick... _You'll_ be the one _hurting her."_

All three Rowdyruffs blanched at what they could only imagine. The demon launched up from his seat, cracking open the floor.

"You _ALL_ WILL BE DESTROYING YOUR BELOVED PLAYMATES!"

Deafening echoes of laughter spilled from his unfathomable aura of despair. The boys burrowed their faces further, their eyes bloodshot, feeling like something in their bodies were about to implode.

"No..!" They wailed in the storm, their minds clinging onto images of their counterparts, _"NO!"_

From overdose of brainwashed agony, their view split to double vision and back, bright colors blazing for a second and fogging up, slowly eating away their consciousness. In desperation, a squirming monkey in the background resisted violently inside winds of a new forming hurricane, then succeeded to break loose of his gagged mouth—" _I command you to STOP!"_ he shrieked straight down to his lungs, "You must not control them—YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT! _STOP THIS ALL AT ONCE!"_

HIM to his attention, faced him with scathing bitterness. "CONTRACT'S OFF, DADDIO!"

The dark Lord spat acid fire in front of the monkey's hanging frame, as he summoned a fragile paper catching flames, containing their vows. Evil's gruesome grin hung upwards in the most disturbing manner, "Who makes a deal with the devil, anyway?"

Aside from their standing, Brick wrecked a cry out of his throat, catching glimpse of his now steadily succumbing brothers. His body convulsed entirely, overriden by uncontrollable villainous thoughts in his head: tainted thoughts of immense _hate, destruction, revenge..._

Yet, despite every inch of breakage, the trampled soul pulled forward to his last cloudy remembrance..

...

_'...I'll catch up to you later or whatever, yeah?_

_..Sure.. Later, Brick...'_

Grasping his unstable heart, Brick held on to his last trail of hope, right before his thread of consciousness was swallowed up by an abyss of dark pupils.

"Blossom..."

...

..

ㅡ

At the Powerpuff residence, for after what felt like forever, the three girls reconciled near the wall of their oval window panes for a small clear up of matters.

Moments ago, once Bubbles was found missing in their bedroom, Buttercup was on the brink of losing her sanity, just until the timid blond girl was caught red-handed cautiously entering behind their sight.

_"Bubbles, where were you?!" Buttercup demanded in a frenzy._

_"I...uh.. went to find..."_

_"...Boomer?" Blossom took a wild guess._

_A frightened gasp replaced the girl's answer. But instead of admonishing her, her sisters both sighed in relief._

_"Don't worry, Bubbles... It's the same with us." Blossom assured._

Afterwards, though first entirely confounded by her two sisters' brief clarification of each of their happenings, Bubbles herself jumped in to their discourse as she also revealed her side of the story with Boomer.

Buttercup was not entirely pleased, for it turned out she was the only one going "destructo-mode" with nothing kept under her sleeves. But hearing their stories, the green Powerpuff came to a salty admit that she had not been willing to be attentive of the whole frame of things. After all, for what it was worth, the three had ended up with nothing to really blame on the other, knowing, for whatever reason, that they had all 'spent the night' with their destined enemy.

The last threads of their conversation, however, were left in loose ends as they were interrupted by the call from the professor downstairs, preparing them for school.

Much improved from last dinner, the three girls headed down the stairs together in awkward slow flight, Blossom in contemplation.

"You guys go ahead," she said.

Their leader descended herself to another direction.

"Why? You're not having breakfast?" They looked at her.

"Well, I..."

Not knowing what to say, the pink girl anxiously played with the top of her hair clasp, hesitant to break the peace after just sharing earnest conversations.

Buttercup caught on, angsty.

"You've got more secrets to hide from us?"

Quickly denying with her head, Blossom looked straight into their eyes with both strength and integrity.

"Please, girls." she called, "I know it's a hard favor to ask, but I promise.. I'll tell you everything when the time comes. ...Right now, you just have to trust me."

ㅡ

"Children," came a depressed voice of Ms. Keane, "Mitch won't be joining us today. He's still recovering in the hospital.. from the terrible, _terrible_ incident that happened yesterday-"

Blossom swallowed a knot at another factor to trigger Buttercup to their yet leftover remains of the fight. Pokey Oaks Kindergarten was full of injured, though medically treated, children from yesterday's havoc. But matters worse, the leader felt like she was already tied to a ticking detonation device, after the green puff sourly caved in to her request back at their house.

"-so to show us we care, let's all take out our crayons and make our dear friend a 'get well soon' card, shall we?"

The whole classroom was brought down to sadness.

Blossom in response, flopped her head down to the desk, guilted by the gesture their teacher decided to make. Remaining in her face-shielding position, the leader puff flicked her eyes around their classroom with dodging glances, taking in the patches and bandages that some of her classmates were in. The pink girl groaned as she could mentally hear the ticking bomb coming from Buttercup with arms crossed beside her.

"Are you okay, Blossom..?" rised a worried call from the instructor.

The pink Powerpuff raised her posture, "Yes, Ms. Keane..."

Their caring teacher consoled her by saying that what happened yesterday wasn't her fault and not even she as a super hero could have stopped it from happening. As kind as it was, it made the leader feel much worse in her precarious spot.

Later, with crafting materials passed around, all the children put their thoughtful efforts into their cards, face somber but hopeful. It seemed although Mitch had been a bully to a lot of them at least once in the past, the children had all come together in support of him as a brave warrior, through a common, more hated antagonist.

And Blossom knew exactly who he was.

In the meantime, innocent of the tension, Bubbles worked joyfully on her side of the table with her tongue poking out, busying herself with her colorful crayons. In how the blue girl saw things, she just couldn't wait to see Mitch all better and strong—then have him and everyone make up with the Rowdyruff Boys because they kind of didn't mean to—and then, she could finally figure things out with her Rowdyruff friend! Everything was going to be "perfect" from now on, after the conversation she had with her sisters, right? Once they all find out how good the boys can be, everyone could get along and live happily-ever-after!

Getting ahead of herself in happiness, the blue puff hugged her incomplete coloring to her chest.

"I'm going to make the _prettiest_ , most _cutest_ , most _wonderful_ get-well-soon card there is!" The elated girl swooned in her chair at the thought.

Blossom and Buttercup, apart from her happy land, worked quietly with their eyes faced ahead, fixated on the work they seemingly had their hands on. Blossom was cutting out a jagged heart from red-colored paper, the trims not turning out how she wanted it to be. She put down a breath along with the unhelpful scissors. Something had to be done. As in, they had to wrap up the unfinished conversation from before.

Her heart-filled voice reached to Buttercup who was making a mess out of her paste glue.

"Remember when we first appeared in town? How people didn't really like us...?" she asked.

"This isn't really the time for memories, Blossom." The reply was sullen, but attention was nearby.

Blossom stared off in reminiscence, hoping what mud they were in right now would also pass by for them to look back to.

"Well, I think it's the same for the Rowdyruff Boys. They haven't acknowledged what they did was wrong. ...I mean, they knew what they did was _evil,_ but they were taught into believe that's what's in their nature to do so. To destroy and cause pain. When all they did until now was just, what they _thought_ as a playful act, never really aware of to what degree it can actually hurt someone. If you think about it, it really wasn't in their intentions..."

Buttercup slowed, but was still busy with her glue, splattering them out in puddles on her card.

"Well what happened at the park yesterday seemed pretty intentional to me. You know, with brick-boy?"

Blossom's voice gained gravity, "We'll have them pay for their actions, and Brick for injuring civilians. What he and his brothers did was still wrong." The leader picked up her paper from before, only half the heart shape cut out. She murmured, "But like I told you, it wasn't exactly one-sided."

"They kind of put it on themselves, don't you think? Controlled or not, after what they did, they want people to be nice and caring?"

The green girl's now amassed pile of sticky glob was starting to solidify in her hands.

"I told Brick that, too. He admitted what he did was wrong. We can get them all to see the same light as us, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, I think so, too."

The two sisters cut to their smiling blue sister who also joined in their discussion. Sighing, Buttercup let down her knitted eyebrows and detached her hands from her card-work doused in glue. Her mind was leaning towards her sisters' approach to the boys. In truth, the green girl also wondered; if it came to them knowing they had the choice in them, would they really be willing to do the right thing?

KABOOM-!

A loud blowup from a volcano rattled and disconnected any form of further work in the classroom. Startled cries of children heeded to the sound from the farout, hiding behind chairs in case of another brace for impact. The Powerpuffs on duty, zipped to the window, grabbing sight of the volcano crater of Mojo's lair coming agape and letting loose a smoke of sinister red to the sky. Trails of super human speed spiraled around its opening then onwards to the busy center of Townsville, venting familiar destructive colors of attack in its passing. The shocked girls immediately magnified their vision to come in contact with a close-up of three red, green, and blue terrifying figures clad with dark aura, plainly apparent to be the ones who they were with just before.

Buttercup's perspective returned to normal.

"Well then how do you explain _that?"_ she faced her leader with a fall of faith.

Blossom, in contrast, was immobilized by the window as she came to head-on view of her counterpart, holding dark voids of possessed eyes.

Her heart piled with trepidation.

"Brick..."

A faint blaring of urgent hotline rang in her palpitating background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I shall return. Finals be gone!
> 
> P.S
> 
> The word count for this chapter!
> 
> It's over 9000! BUAHHHH!
> 
> ...Get the reference? Sorry.. lol.


	12. After Every Storm Passes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buttercup swatted the last of the bat demon out of her eyes and deflected a punch from her green assailant.
> 
> "I know you said you won't go easy on me the next time we meet, but take a hold of yourself, snitch!"
> 
> Bubbles pushed her counterpart away and regretfully landed a strike on his jaw.
> 
> "You have to fight it! You're strong, I know it! You can do it!"
> 
> Blossom swung her opponent around and caught him in a headlock.
> 
> "Don't let it control you! You have control of your powers. You're the one who decides! You're not the evil voice! You're not the injections! You're not even the chemical X!—You're you!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J'arrive! How was everybody's holidays? :)
> 
> Here's a new chapter in celebration of the new year! Action scenes take long to write, but it's worthwhile I think. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good one and enjoys this!

"Yes, Mayor. We're on our way!"

Unlike the certainty in her voice, Blossom's hand trembled as she pretty much let go of the receiver than put it down. By the window, Bubbles had trapped her arms in likely shock, leaving Buttercup to be the only one who had positioned a take off.

But as she could obviously tell, she pulled her body back to set point.

"Well aren't you two coming?" She inquired.

The two did not budge. The rest of the children in the room stared out of their chairs in blank confusion at the unseemly event.

Finally,

"You girls go ahead," the leader instructed her team, pulling together.

Buttercup watched the redhead hold up the receiver once more as she herself thinned her lips into an expressionless line. Her turn of blind-eye ended here.

She zoomed to her sister punching in a new number and held down the phone against her will.

"Alright, spill it out, Blossom. What is it that you're hiding from us?"

Weight against the phone table, Buttercup was surprisingly levelled and firm.

Holding her head up, Blossom well-observed the green's resolve to hear her than pass judgment. In fair hold of command, she couldn't possibly ignore what was visible.

"Buttercup.. have you seen their eyes? It's not their usual color. They're possessed."

Buttercup pulled back, "Wow, you're really at this..."

"No, look at the sky!" Blossom pleaded, "Don't you see? It's HIM!"

"..."

Taking note of how serious she was, Buttercup shuffled towards while scrutinizing the distant chaos outside the window. She stopped next to the quiescent Bubbles as she worked her bearings with what she saw; a noticeable color of aura, atypical movements found in the boys, plus the logical order of events from before...

Buttercup's shoulders lowered to acceptance.

It was unquestionably their _demon_ _foe._

"So... what do we do then?" she sighed over to her leader, losing spirit.

"I have a plan," Blossom stated, "But there's no time to explain! I need you two to go keep HIM and the boys busy."

"What?!" Buttercup gaped in panic as she came within distance. "We can't handle HIM and three possessed Rowdyruffs on our own!"

Blossom pressed her drying lips together.

Despite the impossible, it had to be done.

"Go on, Buttercup! I'll be there shortly. Right now I give you _full control of the team!"_

In deep graveness of things, the leader puff offered what would significantly fortify the green girl's will to fight.

There was a discernible spark of green.

"Now we're talkin! Come on, Bubbles. Time for action!"

As Buttercup whisked towards and tugged the spaced-out blue puff back to palpable senses, the two made their way out to the scene as fast as they could.

Blossom, in slight relief, resumed to her task in planned protocol to the emergency. What she was too busy to notice was the motionless audience in the classroom who also widely conceived the situation.

ㅡ

Arrival near the heart of town uncovered drastic view of the devastation.

Massive destruction was as far as the eyes could reach. Buildings stood in crazy angles, jutted and smashed in for several blocks. Roads were elevated and broken apart to tectonic plates. And ruins of whatever lied across everywhere among fleeing crowds.

The girls took a gasp at how grossly the situation was disseminating out of hand. At this rate, there wouldn't be a single building standing at the end.

"Ahhhh!"

"...?"

Strangely enough, as they looked down, they noticed that the citizens below were running in weird patterns, despite a considerable distance away from the main havoc. And strangest of all, as they located their eyes to inspect that certain area, they observed mists of dark foreboding fogs—one they've never seen—infesting around the three ceaseless streaks of disaster.

Resolute regardless, Buttercup stationed her fists and called to her sister, eyes fixed at their destination; "Bubbles you take blondie, I'll take the thug! _As for Brick-face_ , holler if he attacks so we can hold him off together!"

Bubbles took the order and flashed straight toward the murky fog ahead, as did her sister.

Both hardly ignored the butterflies in their stomach.

...

_Something was wrong.._

While deeper and deeper they flew into what they thought was a fog, the Powerpuffs screeched to a stop as they both coughed and teared out, finding themselves within a highly nauseating miasma.

Their throats burned with the invasion of the foreign substance.

After unwillingly breathing in abundant amounts of the baneful smoke, they cautiously opened their eyes, painfully adjusting to the environment.

Their large eyes popped open all the way.

"...What in the world..?"

ㅡ

Having gone through the same initiation, Blossom faced upfront the daunting conjurations of what seemed to be sized-down evil beings in HIM's likeliness. The small red gargoyles had on the same horrific grin and effeminate laughter, while wearing a mini tulle skirt and bat wings larger than their own bodies.

Gasping in shock as they charged in, she blasted every one of them back, gouging them with her ray as she made her way through.

She hustled a step behind her sisters who were battling in the outlying sky. They were tied up with their own gargoyles, while fending off their superpowered counterparts who had reached their periphery.

Blossom was much concerned. This wasn't good, and all too sudden! But everything would work out fine if she could just do this right!

Just then, the pink puff had her attention dragged to a sound of shots originating from below.

To her awe, Mojo Jojo—still in his robe (now ragged) and some dirty slippers—was shooting rocket cannonballs from the ground, armed in his own artillery from his weapon chamber. The monkey had somehow managed to escape the restraints of the devil—his wrists chafed red as a result—and collect what little he could carry as he dislodged himself, right before his home completely perished with lava. The cannons he fired, however, were not aimed at her or any of her sisters, but at the creatures flittering about in the fogs. Another shot was blasted, but it easily missed the little devils, mocking him with their tiny effeminate snickers. The miss-fired cannon hit the top of a skyscraper instead.

Mojo stomped his foot. "Curse those unintelligible creatures!"

Enraged, he drew out a button device from his sleeve which he pushed down with his thumb, setting free the jetpack on his back. The chimp levitated from the ground so he could come in level with the creatures. Blossom noticed how he was now some distance just below her, holding up the opening of the large weapon to another fire.

She hailed the monkey from her spot.

"Mojo!"

ㅡ

Tough luck was prominent in their battle. The little devil creatures did little to harm the two Powerpuffs but they were definitely getting in their way of vision and mobility.

The mini HIMs danced around pulling on the girls' hair and yanking their arms to each separate directions, but when the dark-eyed Rowdyruff counterparts drove in for an attack, they glued them to place and instantly vanished, abandoning only the girls for whatever impact.

Buttercup encountered another blow in that same order, her body pivotting and thrown face front; which she managed just enough to spare herself breaking through a building window, though still planting her face on the glass and sliding down.

"Uggh.." she shook her groggy self and pulled apart from the unharmed building. Up ahead, Bubbles was still caught in the network of demons.

"Ow, ow, ow, let go!" she heard her scream. The mini demons abided to her wish and slung her over to the hands of her counterpart who in due course decked her to the ground.

Buttercup had no time to respond, as her opponent suddenly swooped in and kicked her against the before building, without any help of distraction.

The green puff's back plowed into the masonry and with her collar soon snagged in his grasp, she was dragged full force down the exterior, cutting a furrow. Fragments and shards of the wall flew everywhere.

Among the madness she peeled her eyes open and took sight of her counterpart. His usual forest eyes were gone, and in place were empty pupils holding nothing; no hostility, no playfulness, no emotion at all...

It scared her, unannounced. As bothersome as he was, she would much prefer the obnoxious muscle-brain than _this_ about now!

Despite it all, the puff came to her senses as they reached the bottom place of the attack; her legs crashed into place on the ground, her arms shielding herself from a flood of punches that followed. Yet, she could feel her feet sinking deeper into the pavement, to which she made a quick ascent and touched down elsewhere on the ground for some space to breathe.

Her green opponent made some disjointed movements—something quite different from his own—as he turned to her. He for sure was completely stripped of his natural behavior. This unsettled the green puff as she backtracked.

Alas, her last step could not find purchase as she was jerked down to her rear and pinned by the tiny demons that appeared within short notice. The Powerpuff struggled in all angles but to no avail in time. Her eyes came to view two figures floating atop of her. _...two?!_

Buttercup stilled to a rock as someone else other than her designated opponent showed himself above... her leader's red counterpart.

Her mouth hung terrified as the two possessed bodies unorderly situated their arms out straight, collecting a combined force of energy.

Buttercup's green orbs shakily held the reflection of the increasing beam.

"No... no! _Help!"_

She closed her eyes at the expected doom.

"Buttercup!"

Blossom dived from the side just in time to tow the two out of her radar, plunging them to explode with their beams in their individual pits formed in the asphalt.

Buttercup finally ripped away from the demons. "About time you stepped in!" she threw her complaint.

Blossom nodded to her apologetically. "Point taken. But it looks like you were handling it here quite well yourself," she commended with a wink. She reached out towards her sister as she dropped her feet to the ground.

Buttercup smiled appreciatively and took her hand, scarcely before they stumbled apart to evade the otherwise vaporizing laser attack from their now rising counterparts.

The green puff, sighing, held up her palms as she took a moment to jest, "Can't even stay away for a second, can they? Boy, are they needy!" With an exchange of eye contact, the Powerpuff blasted into action with her sister.

Their standing counterparts, like a bull would, dragged their foot on the road a few times before dashing forward and rolling themselves like a bowling ball.

The Powerpuffs, headed to them in their own sequence, switched their manuever and did spinning cartwheels until they looked like pastel pinballs.

The spinning color streaks faded as they all met with an explosion.

ㅡ

In some other part of the city near the market, Bubbles had unknowingly distanced apart and was swinging her arms in the sky in attempt to shake off the small devils that were pulling on her pigtails.

Falling into their trap again, she blindly took another swipe but met with nothing; she lost sense of her flight as she flailed, promptly receiving her opponent's attack that smashed her down to a shopping cart below. The wheels of the cart sailed to its market with her on top, carrying her through the entrance. There was a collision heard as people in hiding filed out from the supermarket, screaming. The previous gargoyles saw their chance and grabbed onto them, some pulling them away from the ground.

Bubbles broke back out through the entrance, balancing various sorts of fruits and vegetables up to her shoulders. She flung them desperately towards approaching devils, in rhythm to her next line:

"Get away, get away, stay back!"

The blue puff continued her food assault until she reached her last antagonist—Boomer.

She lowered her last product in hesitance, coincidentally a broccoli; she had yet been able to lay a hand on him ever since.

She called to him with pleading eyes.

"Boomer, please! I don't want to fight you! And I know you don't either..!" she backed away slowly, letting go of the broccoli. The vegetable got caught in the nearing Rowdyruff's stride, smashing into pieces. Bubbles could only sniffle at the sight of her friend, walking unstably, hollowed in the eyes and soul at the grasps of the devil.

_...Goodbye, Bubbles..._

_—!_

Her eyes streamed of tears. There was no way she could strike him, not after what they've been through!

Before he could approach any further, a ray of green plowed him out of the way straight to the side of a dumpster, after helping down the citizens from the gropes of the gargoyles. Her green sister stood protectively in front of her, watching her partner revive.

The green puff called to her,

"Bubbles, you gotta keep your head strong! It's not him, it's not the same Rowdyruff you know! You gotta fight him!"

"I... can't...! I can't possibly-!"

"Yes you can!" Buttercup said sternly. "It's the only way to save him!"

The green puff gave her a last trustful look before she took off to block an attempted onslaught on the citizens by her counterpart.

Shortly, a pink streak neared and gave her a slight nod of encouragement as she also dealt with hers.

Bubbles' distress was attenuated to find both her sisters together on this. She rubbed her tears away and shifted her view back to her blue partner. Her figure secured a firm posture.

Buttercup was right. This was the only way to get him back, _to break him away from HIM's spell!_

"I'll save you Boomer..." she promised.

The blue Powerpuff let out a heart-breaking battle cry and willfully charged towards her blue friend.

ㅡ

Blossom jostled through the shower of devils. There was no way of knowing where they kept appearing from and how many of their numbers were left.

But what kept her fighting was the thought of her counterpart. She had made a promise to herself in front of that fateful campfire that she would help him. Inside her, she had this intrinsic flicker of will surging up from their underlying friendship. She was not about to let it extinguish.

"Briiiiick!" the redhead shouted to him.

But her impassioned cryouts gave away her position, and were only met with more of his hits. The empty look on his face in doing this pained her the more. But losing sight of his presence through the deluge of devils was far worse. Broken or not, he was still hers to save.

She did not cease her cries for him as she knocked him back in their thick of demons.

Quite an amount of time passed in the Powerpuffs' disadvantageous battle in their own separate skies. Though time to time the three girls had tried to switch opponents to save themselves from emotional torment, their opposite number strangely returned and insisted upon their own partners, as if to hold on to them...

...As if to ask for help.

Buttercup swatted the last of the bat demon out of her eyes and deflected a punch from her green assailant.

"I know you said you won't go easy on me the next time we meet, but take a hold of yourself, snitch!"

Bubbles pushed her counterpart away and regretfully landed a strike on his jaw.

"You have to fight it! You're strong, I know it! You can do it!"

Blossom swung her opponent around and caught him in a headlock.

"Don't let it control you! _You_ have control of your powers. You're the one who decides! You're not the evil voice! You're not the injections! _You're not even the chemical X!_ —You're _you!"_

All three of their cries crossfired in the skyline and triggered the slightest signs of resistance in the dark voids of pupils. The number of flying gargoyles were also at some point significantly decreased in numbers.

This did not go unnoticed by the girls.

Before they could act, however, it was then at last the mastermind behind this chaos appeared in an opening swirl of red clouds.

The girls tore apart from their opponents and regarded the premonition with bladed eyes, unsurprised.

"Why hello, girls..." it purred rather coyly, "It looks like you have been expecting me. I'm just getting too darn predictable, aren't I?"

At his appearence, the controlled boys flew over like puppets under strings and gathered under his cloud. The devil made himself comfortable on his cloud cushion, eyes admiring his one claw as he would manicured nails. He blew on them most preciously with his curly lips.

"Come to think of it _now_ , having the boys hang around with you wasn't entirely useless," he began, giving himself a stretch with his arms against his pointy ears. His fixed grin was positively pernicious _—_ "Thanks to that, I can more easily... FAZE YOU INTO MY SCHEME" _—_ It thickened.

The Powerpuff Girls, though angry, could not deny what they were told. They could only glare at him through vengeful eyes. HIM guffawed at what he saw, his claw hanging down to cover his mouth. He made himself disappear and returned with a lick of flame high above them.

One leg tipped up in the air, his clawed arms came together and did a twist of celebration _—_ "So with that said, let's _crank it up a notch_ , shall we?"

Storm winds gushed in. Following the malicious statement, more red smoke disseminated from his circle and suffocated the recoiling girls. When they pried opened their teary-eyes from the exhaust, the evil-doer was already gone.

"Holy..."

Lo and behold, Blossom noticed first what was horridly imminent. From their original spot, hundreds, even thousand duplicates of their counterparts hovered before them. Their clothing of dark aura _—_ whichever of them was real _—_ had intensified on every corner of their bodies.

The three girls instinctively cowered away from the sight.

"And I thought one of each was bad enough!" Buttercup whined, hands crashing down.

The colossal rush in of assails gave none of them more time to complain. The clustered bundles of Rowdyruffs intrusively flocked and entangled with their own solitary counterpart. The girls were now well apart, amid their mobs of opponents. There were three oversized balls caused from all of this, still growing in magnitude, until each of them screamed loose in shockwaves pushing back their superfluous horde of counterparts. But this did little to stop them from flooding back in.

Buttercup was caught wrestling in a bundle of outstretched limbs. "Your plan better be working, Blossom!" she grated out.

"Don't worry, it's on its way!" Blossom replied the same.

"Say _what?"_ Bubbles questioned.

The three broke free in the same manner as before.

Blue and green stared at her, her explanation completely over their heads, which mattered none when they had to deal with another incoming tidal wave of zombified attacks.

Buttercup gave her slew of green Rowdyruffs a round of her tender mercies, keeping Blossom in sight.

"Okay, fine, I'll take your word for it!" she hollered afar, "But how do we hold off now?!"

Blossom withstood in her battle until she found the chance to talk, "Think about it! HIM isn't a villain who uses brute force for his tactics! That's because he can't cause considerable mayhem without the help of manipulation! All what we're seeing now is but a _hallucination_ under his spell!"

"I think we've gotten that down by now! So how do we get rid of them?!" Buttercup pestered.

"And where are the real Rowdyruff Boys?" added Bubbles.

"That's what we gotta find out!"

Again, the two nonplussedly watched their pink sister jump in to her swarm of opponents, but nonetheless carried on with their own fight with what minimal comprehension.

To their luck, since the majority of the Rowdyruffs they handled were copies, most were significantly weaker than their real life forms. How to discern the real ones out of the mass, however, was beyond them.

Not long after, the heavy-weighted pile ups became too much. Abandoning the sky, all three girls ended up in a screaming dive within their conglomeration. What looked like three huge meteorites crashed down to different part of the streets, bringing down a couple of buildings with them.

The pile Bubbles was in toppled down to reveal her in the mess. She raised herself up, sensing a destabilizing quake under her. Under the dispersed blue Rowdyruffs she was sitting on, the ground bulged up and sprayed a thick sprout of water. Bubbles followed this up and descended somewhere remote, shielding herself from sprinkling water. Along the slope, she noticed that the pile she had been in encroached the space of some subsurface waters. But what else she saw was much more groundbreaking;

What used to be heaps of her counterpart were slowly dissolving into fuzzy clumps, fading away from eyesight.

"Eep! They're _melting!"_

The blue puff clapped her hands onto her mouth, stepping back from the unbelievable phenomenon.

_"Bubbles!"_

Blossom and Buttercup flashed into her landing site from hearing the commotion. In their haste, what they didn't consider were the train wrecks of following counterparts right behind their tracks, which fortunately, broke down and emulsified at the slightest touch of water droplets.

The three who had braced for what was expected, pulled out from their defense, watching in awe _—_

 _At once,_ they parted their lips, _"Wait a minute-!"_

All three of them had the cogs in their head turning, visualizing their own version of the drenched Rowdyruffs in each of their bygone fight _;_ Buttercup with the underground pipeline geysers, Bubbles with the water tank, and Blossom with the lake.

The pink Powerpuff's complexion enraptured with hope.

"Bubbles, that's it! The _real_ Rowdyruffs can't disappear from being soaked with water!"

"No, duh!" Buttercup replied in equal hold.

A determined smile was gathered on all of them, the water sprout sputtering in the foreground.

Blossom called for the Powerpuffs together.

"Let's _soak it to 'em_ girls! It's time to rain on their parade!"

Uprising through the sprinkling shower, the three pastel streaks tweaked their way out of the overcast red fogs towards the ocean near their town. On their arrival, the puffs shot their laser beams through their eyes and evaporated profuse amounts of water enough to generate a huge amass of storm clouds. Blowing the clouds back to where they came from, the girls made sure the whole town was shadowed by the inclement weather. They then caused friction in their hands for lightning, in order to speed up the process. But just as they crackled their first electricity, they saw in hindsight, regenerated duplicates of Rowdyruffs chasing up after them. As they were run over by the raging course of the Rowdyruffs, the sky concurrently began to rain down in torrents.

According to plan, flames were extinguished and what was left of flying demons faded. Fleeing citizens halted in their tracks to stare up at the sky.

The heavy downpour in due time overpowered the bleak of the previous fogs. Every single illusion that had permeated the town washed away with the rain.

The Powerpuffs opened their eyes and found themselves in the middle of nothing.

Buttercup was bemused. "What the-? It's really that simple?!"

Wiping her soggy bow back up, Blossom surveyed the settled situation down below. She did nothing but shrug at the blunt absence of more difficulty. "Drenched back to reality, something like that I guess," she muttered.

"That was easy!" Bubbles celebrated, striking her arm in the air. Marks of rain ran down her limb, as it did on all of their floating bodies above town.

Blossom shook her head for clarification. "But it's only temporary. It just prevents their corporeal formation to manifest in our minds."

"Oh." The previous puff remarked, hanging loose.

Sadly, the battle was not over yet.

Buttercup swayed her head and brought up the good to this. "At least for the time being we won't have external distractions."

Blossom sighed, both as confirmation and distress. "So the only thing standing in our way to save Townsville... and..."

A lightning struck as three pairs of eyes panned to the stormy distance,

"...the Rowdyruff Boys is..." Bubbles continued.

Distinguishable out far was the long-searched hovering main bodies of their three counterparts, posture condensed to head their way.

"...the Rowdyruff Boys." Buttercup completed the sequence.

A round of thunder erupted. And surely, the three figures were not the only ones that greeted them. HIM reappeared in his cloud nearby, extremely displeased.

"Well, well, well-" he said stroking his beard, "you've managed to come this far. I'll have to see to it to _DESTROY you brats_ _faster."_

He paused at a factor.

"But first _-_ " the demon let his evil eyes trace up to a shining material _—_ _which was poking out from Blossom's dress..._ _"_ _—_ I believe _THIS_ BELONGS TO _ME!"_

Blossom gasped as she felt something being scraped away from her garment. Before long, the vial of glowing liquid was instantly held between HIM's claws.

Her face flopped with instant dread.

"YOU THOUGHT I HADN'T CAUGHT ON TO YOUR LITTLE EXCHANGE WITH MY PAWN?! HOW SMART OF YOU TO CARELESSLY LEAVE IT HANGING IN YOUR POCKET!"

Wasting no time, the vial was thrown across and combusted to flames. A shrill of scream followed.

 _"NOOO THE DRUG_ _—_ _!_ "

The pink puff clutched her head in great remorse, seeing the world before her shard to pieces at the debacle.

"The drug?!" Bubbles cried, a step behind.

"What drug?!" Buttercup followed.

Blossom wasn't in the state to answer them.

A surreptitious mist formed while HIM snuck up behind the confused two. " _—_ The drug that I've been _injecting the boys with,_ of course."

Bubbles and Buttercup instantly dashed back to frame him into view, their shock all too clear on their faces.

The demon chuckled amusedly at how they were unaware. "The same one that my little Brick was able to steal behind my back; It's _appalling_ how he decides to use the evil I teach him."

...There was a sharp snap inside the leader.

 _"You didn't teach him ANYTHING!"_ she broke into a wail, eyes squelching with angry tears. She shook heavily through biting teeth, "You _brainwashed_ them!"

Drowning in her sea of sorrow, more trickles of rain streamed down and covered her downcast face.

Deeply content with her bemoans, HIM dissolved into his clouds as his three henchman approached further. "Call it what you want," he rejoiced in howls, "IT'S STILL GOING TO DESTROY YOU."

The last of his presence disappeared from what they could discern.

The blue and green Powerpuffs were absolutely flummoxed in the situation. Whatever it was that they missed... _did Blossom's plan just fail?_

In what reduced to a drizzle, the Powerpuffs lowered their heads in resignation. None of them were in their right minds to deal with what was coming.

In the meantime, the Rowdyruffs were in slow advancing flight, only a few distances away...

...So was the voice that called to them.

"Over here, you bumbleheaded Powerpuff!"

_"—!_

—Mojo Jojo?!" blue and green yelped in alarm.

The green chimp, their usual enemy, was staring at them afloat in his jetpack, holding something in his paw. He, by now, was properly dressed in his blue tunic and purple cape.

Mojo snorted at their point of obvious. "Any of you, _catch!"_

Bubbles and Buttercup blundered at the sight of him pitching what he had.

Behind what they could see, there was a triumphant tug of smile at the corner of a mouth as the leader herself sweeped in to catch what Mojo had thrown. It was _—_ to Bubbles' and Buttercup's surprise _—_ a vial of liquid just like before, but _different._

Amidst the pouring rain, Mojo raised his voice to inform her, "It's a topical drug! It should do the trick when it comes in contact with the boys and everyone who's being hypnotized under the spell!"

"Got it, Mojo!" Blossom remarked.

"Wait, what _is_ that?!" Her sisters goggled, not comprehending.

"Just follow me!" The leader assured.

Her predecent act of misery was no where to be seen. She led the way as the three puffs soared in target of the storm clouds.

In a shortwhile, HIM appeared in fumilating anger. "STOP THEM!" he commanded the boys close by.

Yet, the bodies of the Rowdyruffs were unyielding to his request _—_ a part of them visibly fighting inside.

"NOW!"

They twitched at his more fortified command and obeyed to what they were told. Soon their three flash of trails were in hot pursuit behind the girls.

Blossom caught sight of this over her shoulder and gave her instructions to her team. After pulling the Rowdyruffs through a low angle flight they executed a sharp elevation to the sky. The boys missed by them in overshoot, giving the girls enough time to disappear into the mist.

Shortly, there was a sound of breaking glass.

The droplets of rain thickened with a roar of thunder. Those who came in touch with the liquid stilled at their place, immersing in their wash away of illusion, and restoration of consciousness.

_"NOOOoooooo!"_

There was a outcry of an evil voice shaking the sky, but which eventually diminished and came to an end.

His three works of evil, under the miscible rain, lost strength and tumbled out of the sky in steep descent. By that, the Powerpuffs emerged from the clouds in surprise and split up to follow their opposite number.

Down below, in each of their waiting, was a hole carved in the ground. The girls rushed toward it from their individual spots.

A figure rised groggily from all of them in high time.

"Boomer!" Bubbles called to hers.

The fog cleared from its eyes, into brilliant blue. "Bubbles!" The boy cried happily.

Under the pitter-patter of rain, the Powerpuff raced in and hoisted him in her embrace. "I'm so glad you're back!"

Hugging back, Boomer smiled and mouthed a _so am I._

Butch held his stunned gaze at his counterpart while shaking the rain off his hair. "Looks like I just got my butt saved by a Powerpuff..." he murmured in realization.

"That a problem for you?" Buttercup questioned gruffly. All the while she checked if he was alright.

Butch gave a turn of head and stood rigid. "Nah..." he said, "if it's by someone equally tough, I guess it's okay."

Blossom made her way toward her red partner, steps cautious on shallow puddles.

"Brick," she voiced softly, "...do you recognize me?"

At her call, red eyes _..._ no longer empty _,_ locked with hers in silent surprise. But his bangs that were soaking wet came down to cover them. "Blossom... you came.." he whispered, sloshing through the water, "You came to destroy HIM."

"No." Upon reach, Blossom gently stroked his hair out of the way with the back of her hand, "I came for _you."_

The soft drizzle of rain shower captured their picturesque moment.

"Ahem."

In shocked hurry, both repositioned to face their intrusion.

Buttercup was standing alongside Butch with the blues holding back their giggles in the background. Her eyebrow arched up, "Care to explain?"

The reds embarrassedly stepped apart, fidgeting a little. Blossom held out her hand in Brick's direction.

"It was all thanks to Brick. He gave me a sample of their injections from earlier," she told them.

His siblings boggled in admiration.

"Dude, you stole that?!"

"How on earth did you do it?!"

Brick just presented them a bump of shoulders, making it no great deal. "Nuthin' nobody can't do."

It was quite different from how he handled it before with Blossom. After all, stealing it itself didn't do anything to save their butts. Not without the help of her...

While their side was done, Bubbles and Buttercup were in more need of explanation.

"But we thought that was what you had in your pocket!" They addressed to Blossom.

"Yeah, HIM just destroyed it in thin air!"

The leader made a wide sheepish grin. "That's just something _similar_ I got from the professor's lab. The _real one_ I hid there earlier and called up the professor to make an antidote to, with Mojo." She made space to point to the monkey up above.

The aforementioned chimpanzee was drifting in his jetpack, giving them an awkward wave at the acknowledgment. He seemed abashed to come down and face his boys just yet, but he retained his third person view to pay close attention to how they were acquainting with the girls. The boys, through pleasant grins, gave him a wave back in reply.

Blossom, on behalf of the chimp who stubbornly stayed above, recounted to them what had happened backstage:

...

_"Mojo!" she hailed to the monkey._

_The monkey-doer lowered his weapon and snapped at her voice, "What do you want!"_

_"I need you to go to our house and help the professor! He's working up something in his lab!"_

_"-What?!"_

_"It's the only way! There's not much time! You have to go, NOW!"_

_The chimp was left open mouthed at what to him was a preposterous statement. "_ _—_ _Why should I?!" he fumilated through his draw out of fangs, "To the very man and supposedly once father figure who DISOWNED me long ago?! I refuse to step so low to become of his assistance!"_

 _Blossom was prepared for this candid speech, "Because your own KIDS_ _are at stake! You want to save them from the hands of HIM don't you?! Prove to the professor, HIM, and everyone! Prove that you're the better father!" she exerted._

_While caught off balance, Mojo was brooding on her instatement of the ruffs as his 'own kids,' and how he in consideration, should pull himself together to become a good parent._

_Without going noticed, Blossom stepped well into his territory,_ _"What do you say, Mojo? An enemy's enemy is a friend." She offered her hand in welcoming truce._

_Mojo, with ample grudge, bickered at the circumstances and accepted the forced alliance._

_"I thought I'd be done with these lousy pacts!"_

..."Wait wait wait _—_

 _you trusted Mojo for this?!"_ Buttercup drew her out from the recital.

Blossom collected an innocent shrug. "Well, it was a chance I had to take. It all was." She stated in confidence. But soon a note dropped as she considered a hinting worry, "Gosh, I hope what HIM destroyed wasn't important."

Bubbles dealt with zero concern, "When was it _ever?"_

Meanwhile, Butch jittered his head sideways at the quick progress of things for his knowledge, palms held out front. "Hold up! But HIM... doesn't he spy on everything?!"

Blossom was well equipped to respond; "He saw that I got the vial from Brick, not what I did with it later. I thought if HIM was contriving a meticulous scheme to puppetize you boys, he would be caught up in monitoring _you_ rather than concentrating too much on _us._ It was a dangerous bet, but I took it anyway."

"Dannnng—" Boomer lauded.

"Nice call, leaderpuff!" Butch jumped in and dunked her a high five.

Her sisters joined in the acclamation, "Yeah, _way to go Blossom!"_

The Rowdyruffs and her sisters encircled the pink puff and continued to raucously revere her for her brave decisions.

...All except for her counterpart who was now bumped off to the sideline. Seen enough to reach his discontent, Brick obtrusively made space to come between the pink girl and his brothers. When he faced her after giving each his brothers the unpleasant eye, he sure did not own an air of delight.

"You did all that?" he snapped at her incredulously in a low growl, "You took all those chances you weren't even _sure of?_ What are you, stupid?! You could've put yourself in _danger!"_

The red boy's face most plainly vented with worried anger.

Stupid- Just stupid-! When he gave her the vial he just wanted to know the contents of that thing, he didn't give it to her to actually  _do_ something so _rash!_ And here he thought the puff would be smart enough to know better! If things didn't go by plan she should've made a run for it! She should have _—_

...

..just _abandoned_ him...

"..."

Initially confused, Blossom got a hold of what the ruff was aiming at and shook her head, nearing the grudgeful boy.

"I know, but you asked me for help." she said to him. "And I told you I would."

Brick, remembering all too clear, flinched at this, slightly embarrassed. "..I didn't know things would get this much out of whack..." he mumbled.

Blossom laughed away his show of furtive worry and smiled compassionately. "Whatever the cost, it's what I do. What we all do, as  _heroes."_  She stood before her sisters, gesturing fondly to Brick who by that, calmed a little. "Brick, you also stole that vial from HIM's chamber," she reminded him, "You risked your safety to save yourself and your brothers."

Brick, in quiet considering, didn't say a word.

The Powerpuff placed both hands on each of her sides in proud recognition, "That also makes you a hero."

Struck dumb, the Rowdyruff meandered into her eyes in touch of a new dimension.

"A hero..." he echoed.

_Crack..._

An inopportune sound of groundshake chilled all of them to the bone.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you on your precious moment," Mojo called urgently from above, "but AREN'T YOU ALL FORGETTING THAT YOU HAVE NOT YET DEFEATED THE DEMON?!"

The frantic shake of monkey paws hauled them to view a new rising calamity.

In imminent display, a giant fissure formed on the ground, spreading beyond their footing. They jumped and reformated farback, eyeing the rising silhouette from the bulking aperture. Every notorious detail handed to them that it was HIM.

Blossom gathered her eyebrows.

"I guess the drug wasn't enough to neutralize him!"

But when fully exposed to view, they realized in plain sight that the demon wasn't facing them empty-handed. To the Rowdyruffs' immediate recognition, the object he had clenched in his claw was the syringe used on them, only many times greater in size. The liquid within the containment fluctuated in sync to the owner's seething anger.

"So—Blossom..." The devil smoldered with a nightmarish glare, _"YOU LIKE_ _TAKING CHANCES DON'T YOU?!_ How about you take the odds on _THIS!"_

_—!_

"WHAT THE HECK!"

The Rowdyruffs shuddered with sick expressions, right as the demon striked his own arm with the needle in the most deadly stab. The area of abuse instantly bulged out to abominable width, veins popping up as appendages.

All other parts of his body followed the gruesome process. HIM's once slim arms turned to black steel, his legs thickened, and his entire body briefly hid into pitch dark with only his large grin and glowing red eyes visible with his growth. Timely lightning cracked all the way across the sky illuminating his new muscular physique. The evil villain now stood far taller than before, his crazily outgrown black hair and beard whirling with the wind mixed with rain. The tulle on the rim of his red outfit was now replaced with spikey hems of fur.

Butch gawked at what he witnessed, "That's his final form?!"

Boomer shriveled, hiding behind him. "Creepy!"

There was a guttoral laughter arising with a new undertake of evil tone. The monstrous creation crouched down to view them with yellow, vein-shot eyes.

It exploded to loud cacophony accompanied by thunder.

"WHICH WILL BE FASTER?! ME BEING NEUTRALIZED BY YOUR PETTY RAIN DROPS?! OR ME _OBLITERATING YOU ALL?!"_

The crowd of children affronted the tempest. Butch and Boomer once again volunteered to be the most chattery out of the group.

"This guy's totally lost it!"

"Word!"

With their comments in the trail, the six of them in mutual alliance, ripped through the rain to deal with the turmoil. However, to what they were uncalled for, each of their dive in for attack collided with thick impenetrable skin, leaving them with sore site of impact. The villain laughed down at them and striked them in pairs down with his claw.

After raining down to a pitfall on the ground, the children poked their heads out in stupor.

"Looks like we can't take him now!" Brick recovered, "We gotta stall till the beast sizes down!"

"Good idea!" Blossom approved.

With no other method, the six of them grouped and retreated in low flight under the splashing of droplets. Naturally, the ginormous monster pursued right behind their tails.

"FOOLS! YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN?!"

Spitfires of acid poured down on them along with earth shaking thumps. Pieces of asphalt, and the mud below it splattered onto them and warned them of the dangerous distance. With the cleansing rain behind their backs, it was up to them, every now and then, to separate in their flight to evade the unfortunates.

All throughout, Mojo was following close behind the children and the demonic monster. Once switching the gear on his weapon, he locked the device to laser mode and shot the back view of the adversary. This however, he had to duck right after due to the ricochet beam that failed to harm him.

After going through more vain attempts, Mojo cursed through his breath and observed the little to effective raindrops—It was going to take forever!

The monkey's plan took a different direction, for which he pulled the device on his wrist closer to his mouth.

"I'm returning with more of the formula!" he announced. Butch and Boomer were startled to hear his voice through their wrist watches. "Keep good hold of the demon!"

The boys reached out an 'okay' signal for him to proceed. Copying, Mojo zipped away on his jet wings.

The children were hence left behind to deal with the gaining hazard. Still a wide road view of their pathway unfolded before their eyes, but how much of it would last was the question. As a bigger problem, they started to see citizens who have yet gotten far out to escape, scrambling away for their dear lives.

The girls, afraid for their safety, dashed in and out of their main trail to aid them out of the way. The boys merely watched their heroic actions.

It however, wasn't long until under Brick's view, a man in a suit tripped onto a puddle. Falling behind a fleeing crowd, he was in danger of becoming trampled by the monstrous strides.

The red leader let out a grunt and kicked in a U-turn. He snatched the drenched man out of the crush site and brusquely deposited him on a safe side-walk before he could utter a 'thank you.'

Butch gave a look of disbelief, when soon enough, a high-pitched scream was heard calling for help.

"Goshdarn-it!" he carped, diving to the rescue.

Boomer likewise, moved in to a group of people who were cowering from an acid downpour headed their way.

Seeing all this, the girls traded satisfied grins and stayed on the path to lure HIM.

Right then, Butch, as a result of his heroic entry, came back to flight with a woman cradled in his arms bridal-style. The woman in question, however, was showing little gratefulness from the sight of her billowing skirt in the wind. She grabbed on to his unruly spikes of hair and demanded to be put down.

"Ow! Ow! LADY! I'm just tryin to _save ya!_ Can't a guy show some chivalry for once?"

He lowered her down and shoved her to a safe alley. The green ruff returned with his hair in complete disorder, looking very haggard.

Boomer in his situation, had protected his group of people through a barrier of energy. After what could have been a catastrophe passed, he let his powers dissipate and looked towards them.

"Hi! I'm Boomer!" he introduced himself innocently.

The crowd just nodded numbly. The blue boy did a salute and flew back to the rainy sky.

Before they knew it, more people had to be rescued and pushed out of the way of their excavating muddy path. Those of which who they couldn't find safe ground were mounted up on their arms, balanced gingerly to save them all from being squashed. But the compiled people they had in tow were increasing to ridiculous numbers, until they seriously had to find a different route to things.

Drops of water splashed onto their heads, formed from the wet crowd overhead. They were all holding onto one another, shivering, either from the cold or from fright.

Butch sputtered from the loose drop that fell onto his face. And with his hands busy, he blinked away the droplet. "Is the evil-brute shrunk to size, yet?!" He yelled in desparation. To what was obvious, they all had a hard time maintaining their pile.

Buttercup, shivering in similar state, searched through her eyes and eventually spotted some calm areas to lay down her pile of passengers. She darted to and fro on the job, then with all done, the green girl massaged her hands to tear up yet another street light, aiming the spear right at the demon. Taking the long shot, it pierced through the slow motion of droplets and hit a bulls-eye on his left eye. The demon arrested in his pursuit, bellowing in pain.

At the event, her sisters and the boys lowered and skidded to a squirting stop on the road. The unleashed crowd scurried out to different corners of the street.

"Alright, time to fight!" Buttercup declared from above.

As they could all see, her attack proved that the demon was no longer invicible to them. The villain, from the rain, had noticeably decreased in height as well.

Butch bolted up to Buttercup's side to inspect the outcome closer. He easily cringed at the vicarious pain, "Do ya _hafta_ use that trick all the time?"

"Only when necessary." She commented, unmindful to his queasy reaction.

Quickly though, they both had to drop down to avoid burning from his fire breath of fury. From what happened, the nearby buildings caught flame with their ironwork structures exposed. The landing of rain did little to quell the fire, turning to instantaneous vapor upon contact.

The screaming demon along the way pinched out what was a toothpick in his eye. Shockingly, if what HIM showed until now wasn't already of inducing nightmares, the state of his liberated outrage surely was by now. All boys and girls faced the ferocious monster with undiluted fear.

Backtracking in the rainy storm, Brick out of all, stood strong and called forward the team.

"Come on, y'all! If there's something I've figured out long ago, as long as we don't get riled up into his dirty ploy, there's no way he can beat us with physical harm! He ain't worth _nothin_ without his stupid mind controlling!"

Blossom addressed him proudly. "That's my partner!"

Brought back to courage, the superhumans took a moment to wipe out loose wet hair in the way. In this process, all the Rowdyruffs' usually wild hair were tamed and dampened down to shape.

Bubbles made sure to check in worry, "Has everyone evacuated?"

Boomer zipped around the puddles in quick investigation. "All clear!"

And all clear it was.

The boys and girls came in formation as they paired up with their individual partners. Silently in the shower, they observed the unspoken borderline in front of them. The scene on the villain's side and the one on theirs, one on fire and one in raindrops, stood in complete antithesis.

They knew, of course, that it went without saying; the one standing next to them had also been their polar opposite in the recent past, standing on the other end of the road. But at this stage, with all bygones washed aside, there was _one thing_ they were all sure of... _There was no doubt,_ with their united powers, their common villain before their resolve would stand no chance against them.

...That in mind,

"Ladies-" Blossom began,

"-and gentlemen," Brick received.

They shouted simultaneously together: "Let's put this demon _back where it belongs!"_

Right with the good-to-go, Butch most excitedly roared to the sky as first in line. "Ahhhh-yes, _bruddas and sistas!_ " he howled in his embedment of light, "Let's get down to _partay!"_

Out to the firey open, their red, green, and blue twisters of light barreled down to hit home on the demon with their own individual sentence. The incredible sight did not disappoint. Ribbons of their color enclosed the wretched villain with abundant attacks, his retaliating claws and spitfires having no effect to come to a hit.

Brick, in for a new try, peeled away from the color streaks and neared the demon's face to aim for a combo attack.

"Blossom! Give me a hand here!" he called to his partner.

"I'm on it!"

To his assist, Blossom grabbed on to a full root of hair on the back of their adversary's head. Pulling as far as could go, she tilted back to fix him for Brick's open fire. Towards the yowling face, Brick raged in for his intense array of punches, sending the giant head flying sidewards in succession to the blows. Taking no more, the matching giant claws threw itself toward the attack area, but with the two darting out of the way, only succeeded in hurting its main component. HIM's whole head juddered like a ringing bell, showing the consequence.

The blues, for their own performance, laced up the villain's legs, up around his body, until they reached the end of the trail to smash his chin in with an uppercut.

The light trails raced out of the painful aftermath, releasing happy giggles.

"Boomer, we're fighting together!" one shouted to the other.

"Yeah, I know!" the other replied, "This is fun!"

"I told you!"

Before long, their blue gradients disappeared past the drizzles to show their green siblings also in on the battle. Initially uncooperative, the two greens came to teamwork as Butch slashed a strike across the demon's chest, serving side distraction for Buttercup to charge in head-on and land a good one with her feet on his nose. As she was exiting in the spill of blood, however, HIM blasted his eye lasers straight-on up to her scream. Not taking this too kindly, the green puff drilled furiously into the line of laser returning the pain with a punch to his good eye.

Leaving him to writhe, Buttercup joined her quite impressed teammate somewhere in midair.

Butch clapped his hands, applauding, "Well done, soldier! I commend your high tolerance for pain! I didn't have to save you this time!"

Buttercup huffed at what he had to bring up. "We're already even!"

Then in curt manner, she faced back to the fight still relayed by their siblings, "Watch _closely,_ cuz you ain't seen nothin yet!"

Butch did an accepting hand motion as he followed her into battle. "Whatever ya say!"

So there they had it.

The Powerpuffs and Rowdyruffs had long shifted the battle to their offensive.

With each passing moment, their strikes increased in volume, while their towering opponent progressively shrunk to building size. But in the meantime, the rain drops, in contrast, were slowly coming to an end, which left them to take the fight mostly into their hands.

Everything went smoothly until it dragged on. What seemed to remain as their continuous advantage came to a stop as HIM suddenly reached his claws into air, his lucky swipes clasping onto Brick on one, and Butch and Boomer on the other. His prisoners struggled against the grip, but were unable to break apart. More of the demon pincers squeezed into their skin, eliciting their screams in severe pain.

The girls in panic, careened to their rescue, but got trapped into HIM's blow of fire flinging them below to a screech, their supine bodies burnt and immobile. Ensuring once more, a black boot stomped down on the unconscious bodies to prevent them from reviving.

With distraction out of the way, the eyes of the demon rolled its evil pupils back to the prisoners in his grasp, lit with insane vengeance.

"PATHETIC. HAVING TO RELY ON YOUR OWN SWORN ENEMIES TO FIND RELEVANCE TO YOUR IDENTITY!—FIGURES! YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN BORN WITHOUT THEM!"

The devil pounded his claws into a masonry until the spires crumbled down, giving them painful demonstrations of what solid structures feel like.

"GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEADS!" he continued to degrade, "YOUR EXISTENCE WOULD HAVE MEANT _NOTHING_ AFTER YOU'VE DESTROYED _THEM!—NOTHING!"_

The last echoes, to his ill-fate, had failed to discourage six glowing irises coming to life.

What was shown after, instead proved to do the exact opposite.

 _"You're wrong!_ _"_

Three resilient bodies yelled and broke loose with a large emission of energy. Their previous captor became blinded from brilliant light.

Brick, in the lead, accelerated mightily up to the sky, "It doesn't matter how or why we were born! Because I am _my own person!"_

Boomer hightailed along, "I am _not a_ _toy!"_

Butch moved in lastly with great force, "And I am a _fighter for my own reasons!"_

Together, the boys gathered their eye lasers to stitch him right across the middle of his chest, serving him right. Staggering backward, the beast set free the girls under his feet in time for their regained consciousness.

Each boy within the success, landed near their crater, helping them up. The six of them regrouped on the ground, the girls no longer in sooty disaster. HIM on the contrary, had barely found purchase with his arm resting on the roofstops, struggling to stay up.

Seeing their antagonist in close defeat, Brick whacked his hand and called for the finale.

"Let's finish him!"

At the drop of command, the reds placed their hands together for attack formation, emulated by the blues, ...but stopped at the greens.

Brick and Blossom frowned at their tomfoolery. _Of all things,_ and _of all times,_ the last two were unwilling to follow through with the idea of holding onto the other's hands.

"Butch! Stop being a baby and put your hands together!"

"Buttercup! Do what he says!" They chided.

Their blue siblings snickered as the greens grudgingly gave in to the order.

That over with, they all took to the air in a spinning tornado and drilled down to the earth underneath. HIM who had no method of tracking them, waddled in his boots until they bursted out, dousing him with their propeller attacks. They circled around his feet, gradually capturing them into their spin. With the demon entangled, they amplified to an engulfing whirlwind which wound into one huge cone stretching up to the clouds. The clouds spiraled down along the drainage, soaking their screaming prisoner with what was left of the weather. From the effect, the sky was rendered free from the overcast of shadows.

Laterwards at their cease of attack, they all ended up finding themselves tangled in the other's arms from the spin. They stepped apart from their partners, blushing. What was left of HIM went flying like an air-releasing balloon and connected to a traffic light. His flaccid body, from the deflated volume and the twirls of the maelstrom, snaked around the pole thanks to the leftover momentum.

By this point, the demon was thoroughly beat-up to its original size. But he was down and not out _—_ In their overhead view of him in the sky, the tenacious villain growled and struggled to free himself from his tied situation.

"Not on my watch!"

Saving them the trouble, the one to serve the final blow was none other than a shot of green liquid that sprayed out and drenched the demon senseless. The source of it was Mojo who had loaded a water gun with his own modified tank. Afloat his portable jet, he looked disgustedly at the resisting creature that melted at the contact.

Disassembling to a throat-raking bewail, the body of what was once their threatening opponent liquified and traveled down the streets. Some of its viscous contents drained down the sewer, while some were left bubbling and evaporating to steam. The lips of the demon, had it still owned its structure, hissed a _you'll pay for this..._ and disappeared down the earth.

"Alright! Monkey-man!"

"Nice hit!"

In loud victory call, the children welcomed Mojo with high regards, watching him wipe clean a stray discharge of liquid from its gunport. But before they could stop him any further, he left, telling them disgruntledly, that he'd be attending his house remains, handing the children their glory.

They all scratched their heads and shrugged in defeat. He must be much confused himself what to figure out from all of this.

"Ahh, let him be. We'll deal with him when we get down," Brick said.

With the war over, they turned their minds to the town scenery below.

Every path they had taken was destroyed; the streets and buildings subjected in flames, in rubbles, and in mudpiles, which would require a lot of time to heal and repair.

And it went without saying, same was with what nightmares the boys had to experience all along.

Still yet, despite the fresh scars, now with the evil defeated... all was peaceful in front of them under the glimmering sun.

"...Did we do it?"

After letting the moment sink in, Boomer leaned in and pulled lightly on the blue puff's arm. "Did we do _good..?"_

Bubbles turned to her friend, smiling in the open light. "Yes, we did," she said to him, "We did it."

Boys and girls together with refreshed laughter, let all their eyes roam to the serene distance.

The storm had passed after a long struggle, and the sky miraculously cleared to show a beautiful color shot of rainbow. Six of their alligned figures, those of which a distinct hue, merged with the splendid scenery.

For what it came down to, their first united battle was over, whether they expected it or not.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, no cliffhanger this time!
> 
> Sorry for all those previous chapters with them hehe. xP It's not because I like cliffhangers, it's because I think the chapters end nicely with them. (Isn't that the same thing?!)
> 
> So anyway, is this the end?.. Not quite.
> 
> Here's a sneak peek of the next chapter:
> 
> Scene 1
> 
> "Are we really gonna do this...?"
> 
> "It will only take a second..."
> 
> "I-If it's to get rid of this stupid side effect, then let's get it over with!"
> 
> Scene 2
> 
> "Professor, why on earth would you own a device like that?!"
> 
> "I don't know. Isn't that how all my inventions go?"
> 
> ㅡ
> 
> Welp, that's all that I have for you right now. See you next time, toodles!


	13. Within Reach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mojo entered briskly to nurse his children. "It seems to be remaining side effects from the long durated injections. That wretched demon!"
> 
> There was a small commotion as the meeting with the Mayor was put off for the moment. People were calling out for a doctor or an ambulance. Buttercup, while watching all this, brooded on the talk they had earlier.
> 
> "Should we try... kissing them?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, all grateful viewers. CLS is back.
> 
> Back at chapter 9, I told you that after about 4 more chapters, this story will be completed. That's chapter 13, this chapter.
> 
> Unfortunately, it seems that I've miscalculated. The story doesn't end here, and you'll find out why...

The batch of beautiful scenery was truly a shame to leave behind.

Landing down from the iridescent sky, the children headed for the site where Mojo said he would be at in happy conversation. But from ill-timing, their joyful chit-chat on the way had to stop cold at their reach of the volcano.

The top of the volcano was conspicuously missing its usual adjunct: and there at its bottom, it revealed every pieces of metal compartment that used to be the work of the chimp, destroyed. The inhabitant of the once observatory had knelt down in front of the aftermath, sifting his paws through remaining scrap metals of what was no longer there.

...As fate had it, HIM had not only affected the boys and the people in town. He had demolished all what was most important to the monkey. His children at one point, then his right and dignity as a parent, every one of his works, his home... all had reduced to _rubble._ His solemn back was enough to show that he was in great deal of grief.

The Powerpuffs, saddened by the misfortune, followed the boys into the territory. After a few advances, however, Brick held out a disallowing hand.

"No... this is our call to make," he told them.

Caught midway in their steps, the girls took the point and backed away from the possible dispute, giving them and their father some respectable space. To what they estimated, this was probably going to be one of the first haulmarks in their decision-making future.

Trudging the rest of the way, the Rowdyruffs gathered their gall for the father-to-son talk, as they stopped behind the distraught creature.

Butch was first to try, parting with his heavy words. "Sorry about what happened, Mojo, your house and everything..."

"..It's gonna be awfully hard to build back what you've made for us, isn't it?" Boomer followed suit.

"Yeah.. I've heard." Brick came last.

They waited, patiently.

Soon enough on their watch, the back figure of the monkey readjusted, but settled again to a crouching position. "No, it isn't the matter," his gravelly voice crawled out, "All it will take is some... _time."_

Faltering at the end, he picked up a burnt metal piece and caressed it in his hand despite its sharp edges. What Mojo was talking about evidently meant more than just the ruins he had in front of him.

Brick took a coerced breath and pulled back into the loose hanging conversation. "Look, Mojo, I know what you're thinking," he said.

Boomer delved in, "It must be a shocker for you that we've become _frien_..emies with the girls—"

"-without you knowing." Butch added for him.

"It was uncalled for us, too." The leader, though it went past without being seen, presented his hands in honesty.

"But to break it to you, we aren't gonna go back to fighting like before," Butch came again.

"..."

Mojo barely moved a muscle. A beat of silence intruded in between, but they could see that their voices weren't just suspended in the air.

The boys swapped glances that were inconclusive.

"I know we've been enemies," they strung out their sentences, one after the other,

"But you've also seen eye-to-eye with them at some point."

"You musta seen the good to it, right?"

There was no answer.

"Don't get us wrong, you're cool and everything," they tried again,

"But you can't always stop us from makin' our own decisions."

"HIM tried to do that. It was such a jerk move and you know it."

Still, no answer.

"..But, if you're still disappointed at us,"

"...There's nothing we can do about it, I guess.."

"...Can't blame ya if you don't want us, no more."

Growing the more glum at each proceeding, the last of their sentence ended with a dismal sigh, dropping any expectations. They dipped their heads and prepared themselves for anything.

...Anything, fortunately, became _something._

After a few moments, at last the monkey spoke up, letting go the metal piece he had fiddling in his hand.

"Don't speak nonsense, boys..." he croaked wearily, "You are all I have, after I almost lost you again..."

His returned vocals rumbled in his chest, raking with sadness. Mojo rose to his two feet, letting off some dust, and uttered the rest in a deeply grievened tone; "I just wish this old chimp would have caught on with that devil's antics before all this... _atrocity_ unfolded..."

The monkey hastily hid himself in the fur of his arm, ashamed to turn to them, "...I am obstensibly a _poor parent."_

The boys all lifted their heads in heated refutation. They neared him, their bodies around him forming a small embracing arc.

"Nah, man, _you_ better not speak nonsense." Butch consoled him.

Boomer was next, "You're the best dad we can ask for!... uh, obstensibly?"

Brick nodded, agreeing with them, "Thanks for standing up for us back there... with HIM."

By the end of their lines, all three had their arms draped over the monkey. Surrounded by the warmth, the monkey pulled away from his forearm, coming first in contact with the pardoning smile of his red son.

His eyes moistened with newly sprouting tears, "Oh dear child, forgive me for what _foolishness_ I've committed!" he lamented.

Brick as a start, he smothered each of them in his tight embrace as if he hadn't met them in eternity's time, dare not letting go. The red boy returned the affection with a pat on the monkey's back, purging any leftover hard feelings.

"It's all good," he said in a muffled sound.

For a bit, the girls dwelled in the poignant atmosphere, being eye-witness to the reunition that had nearly been torn apart. A peaceful smile lingered on their calm faces.

Later on when the family finally parted, they tried out for their permission to enter.

Blossom carefully let herself in. "Speaking of the devil," she addressed to them, "What happened anyway? Just before all this?"

Butch and Boomer turned to file their hefty complaints.

"He chiseled us, the crook!"

"Yeah, that fatheaded jerk!"

Supplemented by Mojo to fill in missing links, the Rowdyruffs each presented their own viewpoint of the happening. It all came together like puzzle pieces, as the Powerpuff Girls were let known of the schematic behind the boys' _birth, rebirth,_ as well as the _main component_ of what constituted their existence—not chemical X exclusively, but free will, which likewise pertained to the sustenance of the girls.

The puffs, while listening, couldn't figure out how to respond in terms of how their 'defined goodness' had once destroyed their counterparts. Though, given that the whole nervewreck over _cooties_ was yet another gimmick by HIM, they were assured that there would be nothing stopping them from developing into closer friends. It was a long circuitous path they took due to outside intervention, but seeing the outcome, it was ultimately worth it.

However, in the fogs of their conversation, the small family had all overlooked a group of curious citizens approaching in dense waves. Picking up to the dialogue, the crowd began to hear the truth behind the preceding chaos in town.

The seven adjoined figures ceased their talk a step too late as they sensed the forming audience. Nervously, they searched the faces of the crowd. They each had on expressions that they couldn't quite put a hand on; shock? pity? sadness?... none of them were anger at least.

Relieved for the time being, Blossom took the position to sate their questioning stares as quick-appointed ambassador.

Said person in position made access in between them and landed in a sector that had cleared for her. She looked to them evenly, hopeful for a positive response.

"Honorable citizens of Townsville," she opened up as if to hold a press conference, "as you must all recognize, this is the Rowdyruff Boys," she pointed, "Though we are well aware of what wreckage they have caused to our hearts these past times, that is no longer true. Up until today, they have all been blinded and manipulated by the evil grasps of _HIM..."_

She paced herself through the crowd, seeing some of them voice shock as she let the message stick to them.

"...But things have changed. Now they stand before us from their own, _real_ decision. And it is to our humble request that you can find place in your kind hearts to give these boys another chance, as there is more to them than meets the eye. We as the protectors of Townsville, can bare witness to what good they can bring. Today as an example."

Lastly, the leader took a heavy breath and thanked the crowd as she retreated back to her group. The look on their glazed faces made her unsure if she had left an impact. But as much as she wanted to add more, her part was over. It was up to the public opinion to come to a decision.

At once as her space was emptied, the whole crowd opened to discordant arguments of their own. There was a debate going on amongst themselves by the looks of it.

The boys and their simian father stood in front of what was probably the entire population of Townsville, waiting for the verdict. All this time, what the people thought of them had by default meant nothing in their ill-motivated minds. And never had they expected that they'd reach the day to be conscious of it. They knew very well these were the people who had _attacked them,_ these were the people who had casted them with _looks of contempt,_ but, as they were fully aware, these were the people who they had _once hurt before..._

Somewhere along the process, the unbridled discussion hit an endless loop going no where, and it was then when a group of hands raised themselves out of the vociferous crowd. There was an intermediate halt, as every attention was turned to them who stood out, from their outfits, as presumably fry cooks. There were three in number who pulled out.

"It's true," one of them came forward to testify, "They've always had some good in them."

"The blue boy," said another, "he saved us way back, when one of us were in danger of being sprayed by hot fries—"

"-Back at the burger place we work in," the last one completed.

There was a sharp gasp as everyone focused on the boy in the spotlight.

The boy himself, had a hand pointing to him as if to say— _'me?'_ It took him some seconds to find himself.

"Burger place?" Brick and Butch both raised their question. They didn't recall getting near a burger franchise during battle.

Right then, Butch whipped his eyes to Boomer with a 'wait a minute,' "The burger place I sent you to?" he interrogated, " _Before all this happened?"_

Boomer laughed sheepishly at his hunch dead on.

Exuding happy giggles, Bubbles excitedly chimed in to his support. "Yup! He already told me _all_ about it! Right Boomer?"

"What?!" Brick exclaimed, "When did _that_ happen?"

Boomer choked nervously at the disclosure. "...We uh- kinda...were... hanging out... before all this...? hehe..."

His brothers looked at each other at a loss.

...Uh well.. that explained what HIM meant by _all_ of them becoming friendly with the puffs...

Blossom cleared her throat and carefully intervened, "Well, Brick, you and I were also-"

 _"Oh FOR_   _CRY-NOT-LOUD!_ Don't you get it?!" Buttercup shouted in frustration, "We were _all_ getting buddy-buddy with each other before this happened!"

"Huh?" said Boomer, the one who didn't understand.

"WOULD SOMEBODY KINDLY PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION!" Mojo hollered.

But before any of them could get through with more bickering, by then, vivacious remarks had already collected between the townspeople to a positive direction. All six of them and Mojo faced the crowd with surprise as the previous statement in the boys' favor started an impetus for further witnesses.

"The red young man!" a man shouted towards Brick, "He saved me from being squashed!"

"The green one held me up in his arms! _Aaaah_ — _!"_ a woman's voice swooned.

Butch, at that, let off hot air, suspecting the authencity in that previous reaction. The green puff was strangely scowling at his direction, to which, he too for some reason hunched up his shoulders appalledly in defense.

More effervescent reactions rised up from the crowd.

"We were saved from being burnt by acid!"

"They piled us up in their flight so we wouldn't get hurt!"

"What splendid performance, I should say!"

"Wonderful!"

"Stupendous!"

"I always knew those boys would turn good!"

"Yeah, we're sorry for all those things we said to you..."

"We're sorry, boys." They all chorused at the end.

Standing before the crowd, the boys were amazed with the ripple effect that occured from their one or two gratuitous acts of kindness. It never crossed their minds to earn recognition.

Coughing into his hand, Boomer bashfully stepped out, returning the sentiment. "We're sorry, too."

Brick, as a follow up, didn't forget to pass credit to their counterparts. "It was all thanks to them... that we got to where we are."

And for whatever it was worth, their audience gathered in standing ovation, thankful for the events. Mojo and the Powerpuffs began exchange of pure bliss.

After a while as the high cooled down, Butch, as a compliment, nudged his brother in front of everyone.

"Which reminds me—Boomer, you saved someone _and_ got along with the blond without us knowin? That's real _sneaky."_

Boomer beamed joyously at his praise. "It  _was,_ huh?"

Brick joined them, grinning broadly, "I guess it was all bound to happen, us getting along with the Powerpuffs."

Butch sneered at him. "What do they call this? _Destiny...?"_

They all _bleh_ ed playfully and laughed, pushing each other. There was pleasent laughter ensuing from the crowd, some of them taking a liking to them through cordial glances.

Letting by some time in their moment, Blossom later informed the boys of a ceremonious arrival.

"Guys, the mayor is here to speak with you."

Indirectly in answer to that, the crowd in front of them cleared a path to make room for the small senile representative of town and his tall redhaired assistant. The plump old man, in spite of his age, seemed to have a case of a major big-league adrenal kick in.

The head of town elatedly ran about their view immitating some of their moves, "That was quite some action! I watched everything from my office! Is it true? You boys are set on saving this city with the girls?"

The boys stared at each other then back at the Mayor.

"Save this city?" Brick asked.

"You mean, like, _become heroes?"_ Boomer swallowed.

An exuberant cheer fell from the crowd before any of them could give a proper answer to the accolade. The ruffs had to collect their baffled-selves to the excessive amount of praise and expectation they were receiving, as much to make this appearance of the Mayor himself.

They rubbed their eyelids. Presumably from the influence, the boys were all starting to see sporadic blurry vision. The Powerpuffs were in for encouragement.

"It's okay," said Blossom, assuming they had been struck by stage-fright.

"He won't bite," huffed Buttercup.

"He's really nice," finished Bubbles.

Somehow their voices seemed distant for a second. But all came to normal.

Shaking out of their funk, the boys pulled to a side spot in order to confer amongst themselves.

"What are we gonna do?" Boomer asked, frantic.

Butch was equally fretful. "I know we're getting off easy, but is this what we're really in for? Settling down as their saviors?"

Brick couldn't answer. This was all coming too fast after their just earned freedom. In truth, he did appreciate the flattery he received from Blossom before—about him being something close to a hero—but in his mind he had doubts of him dedicating to be one. They had spent too much time as a dog astray, and frankly, that's probably what suited them, instead of being tied down to any code of conduct they couldn't keep.

After exchanging talks under lowered voices, the Rowdyruffs came to a final consensus: _They were not cut out to be a hero._

Brick, clearing his throat, took a determined walk toward the faces of Townsville.

"Uh-hm, we— _!"_ All too sudden, he winced at a pain crossing his head, "ugh..."

"Are you alright?!" Blossom rushed to him stumbling on his feet, her sisters also tending to their partners.

The boys concurrently seemed to suffer from a mild migraine. The Townspeople, along with the Mayor, all worriedly leaned in to seek out what was happening.

"I'm fine." Brick waved his head.

"I just... still feel a bit dizzy." Boomer followed, holding himself up.

Butch simply growled as he steadied his steps. Buttercup, when she realized she had gotten too close, pulled back in distance.

Mojo entered briskly to nurse his children. "It seems to be remaining side effects from the long durated injections. That wretched demon!"

There was a small commotion as the meeting with the Mayor was put off for the moment. People were calling out for a doctor or an ambulance. Buttercup, while watching all this, brooded on the talk they had earlier.

"Should we try... kissing them?"

"What?!"

Every head lifted to the person they least expected to propose such a suggestion. Butch the most out of all, had a red hue inflaming his cheeks.

They looked at her with entirely doubtful expressions, wondering what had gotten into her.

Seeing what was close to flat rejection, Buttercup threw her arms out front, simmering with embarrassment, "Don't give me those looks! You heard the story, there _ARE NO COOTIES!_ If it's evilness that took control of them, then we could probably get rid of them with our ' _defined goodness'_ or whatever!"

The green puff put herself out right after that. She broiled at her spot, regretting the fact that she hadn't kept quiet. It most likely was a dumb idea, but she was no _miss-little-kiss-me-desperate!_

But by the looks of it, out of the stares that were still wandering, the pink Powerpuff took her seriously and considered the proposition, hand to chin.

"Buttercup has a point. It might actually work..." Blossom voiced. Buttercup looked to her with unexpected surprise. The leader continued with a smile, "What we used to destroy them before, we could actually use to help them this time."

"Oh goodie!" Bubbles squealed, quickly hyped at the idea.

Blossom owed one to her green sister who had turned more abashed. "Good thinking, Buttercup!"

Hearing this out, the crowd nodded and shrugged all together, seeing it worth a shot.

What was left now was the ask for permission to the boys' guardian. The girls, as well as the whole crowd, courteously awaited his call to go. Mojo, with little to say, huffed in consent. Though it didn't please him, there was nothing really in Mojo to fight the remedy, as he had no better ideas to put on the table.

After all, _how much could a little smooch do?_

With no other outlying objections—other than the ones probably present on the boys' fearful faces—the girls advanced towards them.

Just as the first time they had been _nice_ to them, they had their hands clasped behind their backs, their curly eyelashes standing out from their half-opened eyes. Three muses sashayed in their captivating walk.

The Rowdyruffs, knocked out of breath, faintly resisted through their ill condition.

"Are we really gonna do this...?" Brick asked his counterpart, plainly nervous.

"It will only take a second..." Blossom said indistinctly, mildly embarrassed as it arrived to the moment.

She had her face to the side, eyelids evading his glance, and her hand rubbing on her cheek to calm down the heat. ...But all he could focus on her profile was her rosy lips opened partway.

The red boy had his telltale blush pelted all over his face as he snapped his head the other way.

"I-If it's to get rid of this stupid side effect, then let's get it over with!" he stuttered out.

"Do it on the lips!" whistled a voice from the crowd.

"That's how it usually works!" another raised, overly excited.

The children, to questionable advantage, were suddenly trapped in the overzealous pressure added on by the many eyes.

What was said though, had to be done. It was just a _stupid kiss_ that didn't mean anything than a treatment method, _right?_

The girls neared closer to their awaiting patients.

"Here we go..." Blossom told hers.

Brick didn't respond but nonetheless turned his flushed face front, eyes closed shut.

"Hey..." Bubbles called out shyly.

"H-hey." Boomer replied.

Things were more feverish in the greens' side.

"Back off! Keep your girl germs away!"

"There _are_ _none,_ you dumb-brain!" Buttercup growled, trying to put him in place, "Hold still! You think I _want_ to do this?!"

"Well I dunno, _you're_ the one who came up with the stupid idea!"

"Shut it!" she snatched his collar.

Seamlessly, the girls bent in and closed the gap—Buttercup more roughly with hers—causing all three pairs of lips to come into slightest contact. The crowd _aww_ ed at the adorable scene.

...

Soon after, with a distinct _pop!_ —all of them drew apart from their staged public display of affection, blushing profusely. Other than the area of contact and the place of conduct, the kissing meant so much differently than what it used to.

The Rowdyruffs for that matter, faced down, cupping their lips at the nonetheless, warm, thrumming sensation. There were some fireworks inside them, if it were shown to the naked eye. In time, they couldn't help but smile pleasently as their past pain subsided.

"Hey, whatdaya know, I feel much better," Brick admitted. He turned to the person he owed. "Thanks."

Boomer danced up and down like he just scored a goal, "Yeah, I feel like I can fly!" He looked shyly at Bubbles with the most innocent puppy eyes. "C-can we do it again?"

Bubbles was most heart-willing to abide to that wish of his.

The greens, on their marks, both pigmented with red at the sight of the other upfront, then refused to look each other in the eye, arms folded.

"Better than blowing up I guess..." Butch grumbled softly enough to be heard.

"-or the revamped _cootie_ vaccinations!" Brick added teasingly for them to hear. Blossom simpered beside him.

Buttercup let out a 'hmmph.'

Back to the blues in the back, Boomer was already putty in the blue girl's arms as he laid limp with lip marks all over his face. Bubbles laughed herself silly as she realized she might have literally loved him to death.

As a bystander to all this, Mojo had a hard time watching more of the outward acts of affection and... _obscenity._ He tried to hide his distaste as he approached them, naturally pulling them apart.

"H-hmm.. if you're all done with your _canoodling_ , I must tell you, Brick, that I have something to give you."

Not so subtly, he held out the wrist device to his son that he had yet been able to gift him.

Brick recognized it in an instant. "Hey, thanks Moj-"

With a thud, the gagdet passed right through the boy's hands.

...

The lively audience subdued with shock. With a look of disbelief, all three boys stared down at their hands and body suddenly becoming intermittently translucent and intangible.

"What's going on..?!" People screamed.

"Is it because of us?!" Blossom cried with guilt.

Brick swayed his head in fervent denial, despite his transitory stages of existence. "No... it isn't your fault."

There was an auditory rise of undefeated laughter in answer to that. All pairs of eyes searched the area with unrelenting repugnance.

"HIM!" Bubbles screeched.

"Show yourself!" Buttercup growled warningly.

But none of the culprit's features were to be seen. It was as if his crude sense of presence was residing in them, feeding off of what could be their fear and apprehension.

All the while, the boys were not faring too fell in the ill-omen, coming closer to fading. Blossom clenched her teeth in anger. "What evil have you bestowed again on our beloved new friends!"

"Our heroes!" People took a shot at their orientation.

"Turn them back!" They shouted. The Mayor and Ms. Bellum were in on this revolt.

The laughter stopped brief before it fired up to an accusatory harangue, "Friends? _Heroesss?!_ DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH! THESE ARE THE VERY LIVES YOU'VE DESPISED! I'M DOING YOU ALL A FAVORRR!"

"Rubbish!" someone called out.

"Complete claptrap!" another shouted.

"It is _you_ who has to be despised!" They put together.

Still in a heated outburst, the demon's attempt to set against was deliberately trampled, not only by the girls, but all the people in the crowd protesting throughout.

"What have you done to them?!" Blossom demanded indignantly. The Powerpuff had the whole support of the crowd behind her.

Soon realizing his method was no longer tenable, an awful din clawed the inside of their heads, pinging between their ears.

"YOU IMBECILES! THE BOYS ARE ALIVE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF _ME!_ WITHOUT MY EVIL POWERS, _THERE IS NO GROUNDING TO THEIR EXISTENCE!"_

That instant, red swath of smoke swept up from underneath the earth that the boys were standing. It twisted into tie-ropes that ensnared the boys' waist and ankles, tugging them down to an endless black-hole unfolding the underworld beneath. Horror was written over the onlookers.

This finally brought satisfaction to _one_ lurking evil.

"WITH THE POWER I USED TO BRING THEM TO LIFE _—_ " _it sentenced to all,_ _"_ _—_ _WITH THAT I WILL TAKE THEM!"_

Stuck in a roaring whirlpool, the crowd fell back from shockwaves from the portal, the gale of impact encasing only the three prisoned souls. The entangled bodies of the boys were sinking as if they were placed on quick-sand. Their voices were inaudible from the containment, contrary to the drastic cries drawn out.

"No... no! Brick!"

"Boomer!"

"Spike-head!"

"My boys...!"

Desperately _—_ in attempt to save them, Blossom the closest and the quickest, dashed through the blockage of force in strenuous strides, arms outreached. Just barely _,_ the hand of hers and her red friend overlapped _—_...but with him _incorporeal,_ she could not lay hold of anything but air.

_—thump!.._

_..._

The minute she dropped on to her hands and face, all signs of them were gone at the lift of her head. No roaring shockwaves, no gaping portal, no fleeting existence... As if none of it ever existed.

_"...Brick..!"_

All climbing up in a rush, teardrops rolled down to her chin as the girl felt herself hurl. Struck hard with desolation, the pink puff clamped her crestfallen chest, falling forward to swollen cries at the loss of her dear friend. At almost the same time, her blue sister slumped near to hug and sob next to her. Buttercup beside them, uplifted her head, preventing her emotions from being seen. As a result of an immense chain event, the monkey guardian and the majority of the people followed in the mourning, bawling their hearts out.

Blossom shivered through the thicket of woe.

_...Why did it have to be this way?_

They had been _so close..._ All the boys had in front of them was a bright future, a freedom to choose their path, and a family to love them. They had just earned a shot at a new start. And _Brick,_ he had been through _so much_ to come to where he was with his brothers _—_ a part of it shared with her...

Sniffling uncontrollably, she tore out her heartache as she pulled back to look at her conscience-striken hands. Just when she felt he was right within reach, he slipped right through her grasp. _She promised him what she couldn't keep..._

_...He was a life she had destroyed once, and both a life she could not save._

On the other end, brimming with barely heldback tears, Buttercup stomped towards the bawling monkey kneel-bent on the ground, whisking him up by the collar.

"What can we do?! What do we do to bring them back?!" The green puff screamed in outrage, taking it out on the one who might have the slightest key to a solution. She shook him viciously as if to strangle out the answer. " _Tell us Mojo!_ _I gave away my FIRST KISS FOR HIM OF ALL THE STUPID_ _—!"_

Driven up to his limit, Mojo pushed her off with no little frustration.

"THERE IS NOTHING IN OUR CAPABILITY TO DO SUCH A THING!" he bellowed, "Unless if we can perhaps find a way to open up the infernal realm ruled by the _damned demon himself!_ ...It is now up to the boys' power to profoundly fight for their _existence..!"_ he hung his head at his throat welling up on the last of his sentence.

The Townspeople exhibited the same sorrow. _No quick-fix remedy could possibly clear up this mess..._

Unless...

"Girls, I have it here! A device that will open up a portal to the _burning depths of the infernal zone!"_

_...?!_

"-Or use that." Mojo's eyes expanded as he spoke.

Incredible serendipity was brought out-front as Professor Utonium dashed in with another one of his inventions _—_ earning the attention of everyone.

Blossom stood bolt upright at the news, not knowing what to make out of it. "Professor, why on earth would you own a device like that?!"

The man gave a convenient shrug and likeable smile, "I don't know. Isn't that how all my inventions go?"

Sure enough, the same convenient shrug fell as an answer from all of them. His fortuitous resourcefulness was not something to argue for the people who had seen it before. Except probably the genius monkey who was perspicacious enough to turn the tables on him.

"How about it, Mojo?"

Well aware of that, the scientist sought approval from his lab partner, nudging him with great anticipation. Up close, Mojo squinted his eyes and scrutinized the missile-like vessel as if that really would help appraise its entire capacity.

He grunted after a brief size-up, but with surfacing appreciation.

"I suppose it will do," he confirmed.

Delighted cheers piped up from the crowd at the speck of possibility.

Yet the scientist rubbed his chin at a remaining matter to take care of; "But I have yet been able to activate it," he stated, "because it is in need of exponential heat for its power source."

The monkey stepped closer, now in with the idea. "How much heat are we talking here?"

Professor reached down to whisper in his ear, causing Mojo's eyes to enlarge to unbelievable size.

"Great Scott! _One point twenty-one times 10 to the 4th power_ _fahrenheit_ _?!_ That's 7000K!" **(A/N: A half-baked attempt at a reference to _Back to the Future.)_**

"7000K?!" The townspeople repeated mindlessly.

The Professor sighed resignedly at the disclosure of what was apparently too mind-boggling to publicly announce. "Yes, it's the temperature of the earth's core. And the only place that grants access to generate that much amount of subterranean heat is-"

"Down Mojo's volcano!" The girls gasped the answer for him.

Their eyes glided to the exposed volcano top and then back toward Mojo and the professor. Hope was finding its way back, but there was evidently no one else who could get by with the task.

"We'll do it." They said without hesitation.

The crowd as well as Mojo blinked at their outspoken willingness. The latter choked out of his throat.

"You should know that there is nothing you can remotely do for them other than safely guide them back," the monkey clarified the unwieldiness, just to be sure, "It's solely up to them to gain the strength for their lives."

Blossom nodded, fully knowing the consequences. "We understand, but we don't care."

Buttercup blew wind out of her bottom lip to disarrange her bangs, not all pleased. "As long as those buttheads can make it."

Bubbles smiled to Mojo tenderly, noticing the monkey's brimming appreciation along with the underlying concern for his boys.

"Don't worry. We'll come back with them, Mojo." She gave him a hug, "They're strong enough to defend themselves."

Mojo, though he bristled, willingly accepted her kindness and searched for an optimal plan in his head before he let go. Blossom, at the time being, had received the device from the professor.

"Wait just a moment," the chimp said, reaching into a satchel he had around his shoulder. His face was plastered with grave decision. "This was meant to be spares for my boys, but for the slight unfortunate change of matters... it will serve as a communication method between us."

What he had for them was, as they've seen before, the devices worn by the boys and almost handed to Brick.

Wholeheartedly entrusting them with his tech, Mojo gave each Powerpuff brief instructions on how to operate the wrist watches. The girls listened carefully as he demonstrated in front of them. Augmented reality projections popped up in VR mode for their visual.

"I have installed a GPS tracker to all of the watches... once you reach into their proximity, you will be able to track down their red light on the round coordinates, presented on the visor." he explained, "There will be a commensurable beeping noise to guide you. However, since there have never been any precedents—obviously—of actual coordinates of the infernal realm, you must mostly rely on your chance event to navigate and scout them out."

Buttercup crinkled her nose, "Thank god you're an overprotective psycho parent," she said, mocking him.

Mojo looked rather offended, refusing to be even somehow treated the same as the devil. "It was meant to be only used in times of emergency!" he snapped, "...But I'll take that as a compliment."

Then as the girls stood by and tested out their given gadget, Mojo kept his distance for a while in self-reflection. To himself blamingly, he looked down at the leftover gadget kept in his palm, the one missing its owner.

"...I was able to give Boomer and Butch theirs before this whole predicament," he let them know after their individual test-run, "but hadn't had a chance to with Brick."

Blossom waved a comforting hand to the monkey. "It'll be alright," she said, "Although it had always been a dream or illusion, we have been in his realm before. We all have a good idea where to find them."

Despite the condolence, the father's insides were rumbling with regret. He had his head bowed down, as he approached her. "...So for that, Blossom," he said, "I want you to give this to Brick when you find him."

Blossom stared at the last device he possessed, handing it to her voluntarily. She, at the same time, witnessed his paws trembling and red abrasions he had on his two wrists from struggling against HIM earlier that day.

The girl nibbled her lip and searched his face, as taking it didn't seem right at the moment.

"No, Mojo." She refused politely, gently curling his outreached fingers back to him to cup the device. "You give it to him when we come back. _You're_ their rightful father."

Taken off guard, the monkey parent, in due time, gave her thankful recognition through his plain-spoken eyes and retreated in his steps.

Proceeding with their inevitably vague plan, the superpowered girls laterwards took position at the lip of the volcano. The surface of bubbling lava was shown within.

Before long, Bubbles queried through pouted lips, "Doesn't this remind us of a similar event?" **(A/N: *cough* _The Powerpuff Girls Movie!)_**

The girls narrowed their eyes and glared at the monkey, who with a guilty cough, turned away from their blame-filled vision. The rest had no idea what they were talking about.

Nonetheless with more important matters to take care of, the girls reverted to their task, getting ready to set foot on the mission.

Three streaks alligned, flashed upward to the sky and dived down to the heats of the lava on everyone's watch. Submerging to the magma below, the three paid no mind to the scorching heat and sped down the boiling depths in full gear, hauling their equipment along. By the time the speed and intensity grew unbearably cumbersome, they reached a foreseen dead-end to their destination. On their marks from experience, they released the payload into place and rocketed their way back out, a tethered platform rising from the activated device hot in their trail.

The girls bursted out of the hot fluid, after only a few minutes time into traveling. A cabel attached platform ensued their path and dislodged its jointed legs, attaching to the opening of the volcano. The platform took a round shape with a two-doored entryway. And later, at the professor's gentle push of a button on a remote control, it powered to sequence in its place for an intense moment as they cleared the way, watching its mouth unveil the horrors of the same but extensively larger black portal from before. The unleashed passageway gave rise to a tall projection of energy up to the sky, dense with dark aura and little glints of flames.

The three girls examined their work with grim expressions and called to their creator.

"All set to go, professor!"

In spite of the success, everyone had stilled at the sight of the intimidating air, Mojo included.

Before the monkey could maybe think about escaping the situation or the teamwork duty, the professor swooped the chimp under his arm to take him back to the laboratory.

"We'll be back at the lab, trying to figure out what we can do to help steer your way. Listen closely for our instructions!" he called out.

"Aye-aye, captain!" Buttercup replied to their father.

"And girls, please be careful," the man beseeched. He didn't fall second when it came to protective nature for his children.

"Be careful!" The crowd cried to them, ditto on the concern.

"Yes... be very careful." Mojo mumbled while trapped in the professors' arms, indebted to their bravery.

"You got it, professor, Mojo—everyone..." Blossom gave each subject a nod and announced valiantly, "We promise we will return with our partners. Our new heroes in town."

With the finish of her sentence, all three heroines soared up at once, knitting the sky, and used the help of earth's gravitational pull to plunge deep down into the inauspicious hollows of the dark portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life can't always be easy... especially when you have to fight for it.
> 
> Do some of you remember how Brick phrased in his monologue in chapter 5? 'HIM is the one with the power to ultimately set them free.'
> 
> Let's hope that this isn't true, and the boys can find a way to do that for themselves.
> 
> The next chapter will be largely inspired by the last episode of Inuyasha, where it also delves into the void and subconsciousness. Frankly, I don't know how to handle the next one, since it literally reaches into hell.
> 
> Will return, regardless!
> 
> P.S. Friday the 13th, not intended.


End file.
